OAKLAND 4, MINNESOTA 3 IN OAKLAND

Date:  Thursday, June 11.

Batting stars:  Justin Morneau was 2-for-4.  Delmon Young was 2-for-4.  Joe Crede was 1-for-4 with a three-run homer, his tenth.

Pitching star:  Nick Blackburn pitched eight innings, giving up three runs on six hits and three walks and striking out three.

Opposition stars:  Jack Hannahan was 2-for-4 with a triple.  Adam Kennedy was 1-for-2 with a two-run homer (his fifth), a walk, and a hit-by-pitch.  Trevor Cahill pitched seven innings, giving up three runs on seven hits and two walks and striking out two.  Brad Ziegler struck out two in two shutout innings, giving up a hit and a walk.

The game:  The Twins started the second with two singles, but nothing came of it.  In the fourth Morneau singled with one out.  Jason Kubel walked and Crede followed with a three-run homer, putting the Twins ahead 3-0.

That's all the Twins did on offense, but for a while it looked like that would be enough.  Blackburn appeared to be in control, giving up just three hits through seven innings.  With one out in the eighth, however, Hannahan tripled, Orlando Cabrera had an RBI single, and Kennedy hit a two-run homer, tying the score at 3-3.

We went to the bottom of the ninth.  Sean Henn started the inning and walked Jason Giambi.  Matt Guerrier came in and hit Kennedy with a pitch, moving the deciding run to second.  A bunt moved the runners up and Rajai Davis singled, ending the game in Oakland's favor.

WP:  Ziegler (1-1).  LP:  Henn (0-2).  S:  None.

Notes:  Brian Buscher was at first base, with Morneau at DH.  Kubel, who played the majority of games at DH, was in right field.  Michael Cuddyer, normally in right, was in center.  Carlos Gomez, normally in center, was given the day off.

Matt Tolbert was at second base in place of Alexi Casilla.  Casilla was in the process of losing the second base job, and would have lost it by now had the Twins had a decent alternative.  As his competition was Tolbert and Punto, he still managed to play the most games at the position, 72.

Brendan Harris was at shortstop.  He and Nick Punto shared the shortstop spot until the end of July, when the Twins traded for the above-mentioned Orlando Cabrera.

Gomez came in to run for Kubel in the eighth.  He then went to center, with Cuddyer moving to right.

Mauer, whose season didn't start until the first of May, was batting .410.  He would finish at .365.  Morneau was batting .340--he would finish at .274.  Kubel was batting .311--he would finish at .300.  Denard Span, who did not play in this game, batted .311.  He was essentially a regular, but is not listed as one because he did not play the most games at any one position.  He played 84 games in center, 74 in left, and 39 in right.

At the other end of the batting scale, Tolbert was batting .183.  For some reason, he led off in this game.  He would finish at .232.  Buscher was batting.195.  He would finish at .235.  The Twins were still third in batting in 2009 at .274.  Los Angeles led with .285.

Cuddyer led the team in home runs with 32.  Morneau was right behind at 30 and Mauer and Kubel were not far back at 28.  Crede contributed 15 and Young 12.  The Twins were ninth in home runs with 172.  New York led with 244.

Blackburn had a solid year for the Twins, going 11-11, 4.03.  He led the starters in ERA and was tied for the most starts with Scott Baker, who led the team in wins.  He went 15-9, 4.37.  From there it got kind of ugly.  Francisco Liriano 5-13, 5.80 and Glen Perkins was 6-7, 5.89.  Kevin Slowey went 10-3 despite a 4.86 ERA, and Carl Pavano was 5-4, 4.64 in 12 starts.  Anthony Swarzak also made 12 starts and went 3-7, 6.25.

The Twins did have a pretty solid bullpen.  Joe Nathan saved 47 games and had a 2.10 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP.  Guerrier, although he did not pitch well in this game, had an ERA of 2.36 and a WHIP of 0.97.  Jose Mijares appeared in 71 games, posting an ERA of 2.34 and a WHIP of 1.18.  Also contributing were Jon Rauch (1.72 ERA, 1.21 WHIP in 17 games) and Ron Mahay (2.00 ERA, 1.11 WHIP in 16 games).

The starters, though, dragged the Twins down to eleventh in ERA at 4.50.  Seattle led with 3.87.  They were sixth in WHIP at 1.38.  Seattle led that, too, at 1.30.

There were several "oh, yeah" Twins in this game:  Tolbert, Harris, Crede, Buscher, Henn.  The main thing I remember about Crede is the Twins Territory ad that referred to him as "Home Run Greedy Crede".

Oakland players with a Twins connection are Cabrera and Kurt Suzuki.

Hannahan's triple was one of five he had in his career.

The Twins were in a stretch where they won four out of five.  This was their only loss.

Record:  The Twins were 30-32, in second place in the American League Central, four games behind Detroit.  They would finish 87-76, in first place, one game ahead of Detroit.

The Athletics were 27-32, in fourth (last) place in the American League West, seven games behind Texas.  They would finish 75-87, in fourth place, 22 games behind Los Angeles.

Random record:  The Twins are 40-40 in Random Rewind games.