Yonder Alonso homered off Tyler Duffey in the 12th inning, completing a five-run Oakland Athletics comeback.
The consistent theme of the team’s California road trip was striking early and not being able to finish off games. That continued in the 6-5 loss Sunday. The Twins find themselves seven games out of first place and five games out of the final Wild Card position.
“We did a fairly decent job early in the game pitching and putting some runs on the board, but we got a little stagnant offensively,” Twins manager Paul Molitor told the Star Tribune.
Brian Dozier led off the offense for the Twins by producing his 17th home run of the season. Eduardo Escobar added a two-run homer shortly after Dozier sending the Twins to an early 3-0 lead.
In the later innings, the Twins started striking out, whiffing 15 times on the game, tying Twins record for an extra-inning game.
“Sometime I think guys get a tendency, especially in tie games to try to do a little bit too much instead of just taking a good at-bat,” Twins manager Paul Molitor told the Star Tribune. “It’s just one of those things. Really, throughout the whole road trip we’ve scored runs early in the game but we can’t find ways to put any numbers up in the second half of the ball game.”
Ryan Pressly replaced Taylor Rogers in the eighth inning but gave up a critical two-run double to left to Matt Chapman.
Duffey pitched a scoreless 11th inning but threw a changeup down the middle in the 12th inning, and the A’s took advantage off Alonso’s walk off homer.
“He’s been swinging early all series, that’s his thing,” Duffey told the Star Tribune. “Went with the changeup. Figured if he’d swing at it, there’s no way he’s hitting it. Just threw it right where his bat path was.”
The Twins continue their California road trip in San Diego on Tuesday night.
-Scott Jordahl
