Taylor Rogers was given the ninth inning with the Minnesota Twins leading 4-3 in Oakland Saturday night, but he failed to record the first save of his pro career. Rajai Davis’s walk-off two-run homer to center field crushed the Twins’ chance to steal another victory in Oakland.
“Those are tough. That’s three games this trip we haven’t been able to close out,” manager Paul Molitor told the Star Tribune. “And it just goes to show you, you can’t take for granted the value of outs late in games and people who can handle that. And Rogers has been really good. He’s had a little bit of a rough road trip here lately.”
Twins manager Paul Molitor knew that Brandon Kintzler needed a day off after throwing 99 pitches over seven days. Brandon threw 26 pitches as he got the save for the Twins in Friday night’s game against the Athletics.
“We were obviously without Kintzler tonight,” Paul Molitor told the Star Tribune. “We were just trying to find a way to get through it the best we could.”
Zack Granite had given the Twins an early lead of 2-0 with a two-run single that extended his hitting streak to nine games in the fifth inning, and Miguel Sano gave Minnesota a comfortable advantage with a two-run homer to increase the Twins’ lead to 4-1.
“The disappointing part was that we had a chance to separate ourselves a little bit early in the game,” Molitor told the Star Tribune. “And we didn’t have too good of at-bats to take advantage of some situations. So we had to find a way to hold on.”
Sano is looking for his team to bounce back quickly after their latest disheartening loss.
“It happens in those situations,” Sano said. “No one is perfect in the game. We need to keep going and keep our heads up and win some games.”
The Twins look to win the series on Sunday afternoon in the series finale.
By Scott Jordahl
