OAKLAND 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN OAKLAND

Date:  Tuesday, July 2.

Batting stars:  Matthew LeCroy was 2-for-4 with a double, a home run (his third), and three RBIs.  Corey Koskie was 1-for-3 with a walk and a stolen base, his seventh.  Dustan Mohr was 1-for-2 with a walk.

Pitching star:  Rick Reed pitched seven innings, giving up one run on five hits and two walks and striking out two.

Opposition stars:  Barry Zito pitched eight innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and three walks and striking out three.  Eric Chavez was 2-for-4 with a double.  Olemdo Saenz was 1-for-1 with a two-run homer, his fourth.

The game:  LeCroy hit a two-run homer in the first to give the Twins a 2-0 lead.  For a while, it looked like that might be enough.  Oakland got on the board in the fourth on a bases-loaded double play, but the Twins got the run back in the fifth on LeCroy's RBI double.  Mark Ellis homered leading off the bottom of the eighth, but the Twins still led 3-2 with Eddie Guardado ready to pitch the ninth.  This, however, would not be Guardado's day.  Chavez led off the ninth with a double.  Jermaine Dye struck out, but Saenz hit a two-run walkoff homer to give the Athletics the victory.

WP:  Chad Bradford (4-2).  LP:  Guardado (1-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Bobby Kielty led off in place of Jacque Jones.  He went 0-for-4 to drop his average to .317...LeCroy was the DH.  David Ortiz was at first base, with Doug Mientkiewicz out of the lineup.  Ortiz went 1-for-3...Tom Prince caught, in place of A. J. Pierzynski.  He was 0-for-4...LeCroy raised his average to .337...Torii Hunter was 0-for-4 to make his average .302...It was Guardado's third blown save of the season in twenty-eight chances...Ellis' home run was his second of the season.  Surprisingly (to me, anyway) he hit 105 home runs in his career, with a high of nineteen in 2007...Due to a lack of time, our player profiles are going to be on hiatus until probably about the first of the year.

Record:  The Twins were 47-37, in first place, leading Chicago by 5.5 games.