Another rough road start for Cahill
Rare 2-game losing streak for Oakland
MINNEAPOLIS — Over their previous 57 games, the A’s lost back-to-back games just twice, in consecutive games at Colorado last month.
Thursday at Target Field, the Twins made it two rare L’s in a row for Oakland, which had dropped the series finale against Texas the previous day. Trevor Cahill continued his good-at-home, bad-on-the-road trend, allowing five runs in Minnesota’s 6-4 victory. The A’s are 1½ games behind Houston for the American League West lead and four games ahead of Seattle for the second wild card spot.
“We’ll use it as motivation, I don’t think there’s any other way to take it,” catcher Jonathan Lucroy said of the consecutive losses. “We’ll come back out here tomorrow, refocus, regather ourselves and take it out on whoever’s pitching for them. We’ll be ready to roll and hopefully do some damage.”
Khris Davis belted his majorleague-leading 39th homer and fourth in five games, and Jed Lowrie added a two-out solo homer in the ninth, but the team went 1-for-9 with men in scoring position overall.
Oakland typically beats up on teams with losing records — entering the day, the A’s were 51-19 against clubs at or below .500 this season. But manager Bob Melvin cautioned that the Twins, a postseason team last year, are better than their record.
“It’s a good team, they’ve lost some guys and they’ve had some injuries, but you saw what they accomplished last
year and they’re still a team that’s going to challenge you,” he said before the game. “So we have to be ready for that.”
As good as Oakland’s rotation has been this month — the starters had allowed only eight runs over the previous 20 games — Cahill has had his difficulties away from the Coliseum. He is 1-3 with a 6.92 ERA on the road, compared to 4-0 with a 0.85 ERA at home. “I just think it’s coincidence,” he said.
Thursday, the Twins scored twice with two outs in the third, with Eddie Rosario sending in Bobby Wilson with a base hit, then stealing second and coming around on Jorge Polanco’s single.
In the fourth, the bottom of the order struck, with singles from Jake Cave and Ehire Adrianza and a two-run double by catcher Mitch Garver to snap a 2-2 tie. Garver was pinch hitting for No. 9 hitter Wilson, who had left with a right ankle sprain.
Cahill said he’d wanted to put the 0-2 pitch to Garner in the dirt. “I was trying to go for the strikeout and tried to throw too good of a curveball and hung it,” he said. “He put a pretty good swing on it.”
Joe Mauer followed with an RBI single, his 2,085th career hit, tying him with Hall of Famer Rod Carew as the Twins’ hits leader.
Cahill was coming off a sensational start at home in which he worked seven scoreless innings and allowed the defending champion Astros just one hit and one walk.
“Not his sharpest,” Lucroy said of Thursday’s outing. “He was kind of scuffling all game with his control.”
After five days off, Blake Treinen, who entered with the A’s trailing for the first time all season, allowed a homer by Max Kepler — the first run off him since July 21.
The A’s got two in the second inning, Davis homering off Kohl Stewart and Matt Olson whacking a double, going to third on a wild pitch and scoring on a groundout by Stephen Piscotty. Oakland got another in the fifth, when Matt Chapman led off with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch, but the A’s lost a chance to add more that inning: Olson doubled with two outs, and after Piscotty walked, Marcus Semien hit a soft single to left-center, but Rosario threw Olson out at the plate to end the inning.
The A’s challenged the call but it was upheld, with Garver appearing to swipe Olson’s helmet before he got his foot in.
Oakland had opportunities early and did not come through, including getting men at first and second with no outs in the third and the heart of the order coming up. Lowrie struck out, Davis struck out and Olson grounded out.
“If we keep giving ourselves opportunities like that, like we have in the past, we’ll come through,” Melvin said. “It just didn’t happen tonight.”