Ryan Noda clubbed a 404-foot home run onto the right-field plaza to break an eighth-inning tie, the Twins managed only four hits all afternoon, and Oakland closed Target Field’s 14th regular-season schedule with a 2-1 victory that locked the Twins into th
No more. Ryan Noda clubbed a 404-foot home run onto the right-field plaza to break an eighth-inning tie, the Twins managed only four hits all afternoon, and Oakland closed Target Field’s 14th regularseason schedule with a 2-1 victory that locked the Twins into the third seed in the American League playoffs.
The Central Division champions will open a firstround best-of-three, against a wild-card opponent still to be determined, on Tuesday at Target Field.
Figure the intensity that day to be exponentially higher than the sleepy, playing-out-the-string feel of the getaway matinee against the major leagues’ worst team. The Athletics, losers of 11 of their previous 13 games and all five against the Twins this season, didn’t allow a hit to reach the outfield until the sixth inning, when the Twins scored their lone run on a double-play grounder by Matt Wallner.
The A’s didn’t manage much offense, either, and could only match the Twins’ four hits. But a pair of second-inning singles against former Athletic Sonny Gray produced the only run of his four-inning stint, and Noda’s blast, the only hit allowed by Kenta Maeda in his first relief appearance since 2019, handed the Twins their 34th and final regular-season loss at home.
The finale was attended by 19,466, the Twins announced, bringing the season’s total home attendance to 1,974,124, an average of 24,372. That’s an increase of 9.6 percent over 2022, but still ranks ninth among the Twins’ 12 noncovid-affected seasons in their downtown ballpark.