The A’s take the series! A victory in the series finale behind a strong all-around performance and the Athletics have won two of three against the Minnesota Twins, who need every single win they can get during their final push for October baseball. We love a great spoiler win and now the A’s also have a full-game lead over the Angels in the division as well. We’ll take it.
Minnesota had a power surge against Athletics starter J.T. Ginn early, tagging the right-hander for three home runs in the first two innings, including back-to-back blasts in the second inning. Not a great way to start the game but not completely surprising considering the ballpark he’s pitching in.
Meanwhile the Athletics offense behind him was having trouble getting going against Twins rookie starting pitcher Connor Prielipp. The A’s got two hits to lead off the second but wasted that opportunity. While Minnesota was looking good in the first few frames the home squad was flat and we were down 3-0.
It wasn’t until the fourth inning did the Green & Gold finally get on the board against Prielipp. It all started with a leadoff walk to Lawrence Butler, soon followed by Tommy White’s single to make it runners at the corners and one out. The A’s needed at least one run here and they ended up cashing in two, first with an RBI double off the bat of infielder Michael Stefanic and then an RBI groundout from tonight’s starting catcher Brian Serven:
that's how its done done done pic.twitter.com/k7ciqFKs5A
— Athletics (@Athletics) August 27, 2026That made it 3-2 and the A’s were right back in this one.
Back on the pitching side, Ginn stopped allowing home runs and managed to give his team six strong innings, allowing just one more run in the sixth. He’d depart after that, down a run and in line for the loss.
- J.T. Ginn: 6 IP, 4 H, 6 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 3 HR, 83 pitches
The righty wasn’t on his best game tonight but it was still encouraging to see him battle through and give the A’s some innings and a chance to get the win. He likely could have gone longer but he’s already at a career-high in innings and the A’s could handle three more innings. He’s now sporting a 3.71 ERA and he’ll carry that into his next start against the Texas Rangers.
The A’s bats finally showed up for their best starter tonight in sixth with a four-spot. First came a Jeff McNeil RBI double right down the left field line that just stayed fair…
McNeil surprised himself with this RBI double 🤣 pic.twitter.com/hQWwlsmVDI
— Athletics on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) August 27, 2026… and then with two runners in scoring position shortstop Alika Williams came through with the big hit tonight, a two-run RBI triple to take the lead:
Alika, Alika alot 😅 pic.twitter.com/rfluADG1df
— Athletics on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) August 27, 2026That would have been enough to make any A’s fan watching tonight’s game happy but we got one more run when Darell Hernaiz collected a two-out RBI single to make it 6-4 A’s to wrap the scoring for that inning. The A’s would add on one more in the seventh off Lawrence Butler’s oppo taco, his 12th of the season to make it a three-run lead:
mirror mirror on my phone who's the baddest?
Law HELLOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/e4NJYeEI6K
We’ve been in this situation plenty of times before. An A’s lead and just a few more outs to go. Nothing was guaranteed and this was still a close contest with the series on the line. First up out of the ‘pen was lefty Brady Basso. Other than a painless one-out single he managed a clean seventh, then he stayed out there and delivered a perfect eighth to bridge the gap to the final frame. It was righty Elvis Alvarado getting the save opportunity tonight. He made things interesting, allowing the tying run to the plate with just one out but he ended this game with a wicked slider out of the zone to strike out Luke Keaschall to secure his fifth save of the year.
A solid all-around win tonight. Ginn wasn’t his best but pulled through and delivered six innings and giving his offense a chance to get back in this one. The bats rewarded his effort with a big sixth inning that got Ginn his ninth win of the year. The relievers Brady Basso and Elvis Alvarado did their job and that all comes out to an A’s series win against a playoff contender.
The A’s have a well-deserved off day tomorrow but will be sticking around in Sacramento this weekend. They’ll be welcoming the Baltimore Orioles to town for three games against the playoff contender. Keep those spoiler hats out, we got another series to win. Stay tuned for the pitching matchups.
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