Oakland Athletics Recap 5/31: Axford Gets The Save

The Oakland Athletics won their second game against the Minnesota Twins by a score of 7-4.

The Oakland Athletics beat the Minnesota Twins today in the second game of their homestand series at Oakland Coliseum. Eric Surkamp started the day for the A’s but could only make it through 4 2/3 innings with three earned runs and two strikeouts, so Ryan Dull earned the win. Tyler Duffey was saddled with the loss for the Twins. John Axford got the save.

With Ryan Madson and Sean Doolittle both pitching on consecutive days, manager Bob Melvin had to be creative with his use of the bullpen in terms of finding a closer. Even John Axford pitched a scoreless 2/3 inning yesterday but had still enough stamina to be effective today, striking out Oswaldo Arcia in the ninth inning and taking fifteen pitches to close out the evening. It appears that having three closers on the A’s roster has paid off at least these last few days. The rest of the bullpen performed admirably; Ryan Dull, Marc Rzepczynski, Fernando Rodriguez, and Axford all pitched at least one inning and only Rodriguez gave up a run.

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Billy Burns hit a triple in the second inning against Duffey to start the scoring as Chris Coghlan came in to score, and Danny Valencia hit a line drive home run to right field to help the A’s take the lead, and Marcus Semien doubled to score Valencia afterwards. Though Minnesota was able to tie the game, the A’s did not relent, adding on two insurance runs on a two-out Stephen Vogt double. Vogt himself had a big day as he notched three hits and scored two runs. Meanwhile, Jed Lowrie is maintaining his batting average of over .300, going 2-for-5 today and scoring a run.

The A’s were in need of righting the ship as they ended May with a record of 11-17. However, thanks to the recent explosion of their offense dating back to their 12-run game against the Tigers on Saturday, the A’s are riding a four-game winning streak. Oakland will get a well deserved day off on Thursday, after their final home game against Minnesota tomorrow.

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Tomorrow afternoon, the Athletics face off against the Twins in the final game of this homestand. Both teams’ pitchers are looking for the second win as Sean Manaea (1-3, 7.03 ERA) will go up against Pat Dean (1-1, 3.43). First pitch is at 12:35 PM PST.