
OAKLAND — If not for the ridiculous numbers of teammate Khris Davis, Danny Valencia’s torrid month of May would be getting much more notice.
Nonetheless, the A’s third baseman closed out an excellent month with a three-RBI night as the A’s beat the Minnesota Twins 7-4 on Tuesday to run their winning streak to four games. Valencia hit a two-run homer in the third, giving the A’s a 3-2 lead. Then his fifth-inning double scored Stephen Vogt from first to put Oakland up again, 4-3.
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He walked in his first plate appearance, and even one of the times that the Twins retired him Tuesday, Valencia stung a liner to right that found Oswaldo Arcia’s glove. Making Valencia’s month more impressive is that he got a late start on it, not coming off the disabled list for a hamstring injury until May 6.
Since then, Valencia is hitting .359 (28-for-78) with eight home runs, 19 RBI and 18 runs scored in 21 games. He also turned in a nice stop at third Tuesday, which helped prevent a big inning against A’s starter Eric Surkamp.
Along with Valencia’s heroics, the A’s rode another stellar performance from their bullpen to close out an overall rough month on a strong note. The relief corps allowed just one run over the final 4 1/3 innings Tuesday, helping the A’s capture their second series in a row as they finished 11-17 in May.
Starting pitching report:
Eric Surkamp was recalled for Tuesday’s start, his sixth this season with the big league club. The lefty was lifted with two outs in the fifth, after Robbie Grossman’s blooper to right took a crazy bounce past Chris Coghlan to score the tying run and make it 3-3. That was a bad-luck run for Surkamp, but he’s made it past the fifth inning in just one of his six starts with Oakland. He allowed three runs on eight hits.
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Bullpen report:
The A’s relief corps has been excellent over the life of this four-game winning streak, throwing 13 innings and allowing just one run. Surkamp left plenty of work left to complete Tuesday. But Ryan Dull, Marc Rzepczynski, Fernando Rodriguez and John Axford kept the Twins quiet over the final 4 1/3 innings. Dull (1-0) entered with the go-ahead run on second in the fifth, but he struck out Byung Ho Park to end the inning. Dull has now stranded all 21 of his inherited runners this season. Axford rang up his first save as an Athletic.
At the plate:
After the Twins jumped ahead 1-0 in the top of the second, the A’s tied it on Billy Burns’ RBI triple in the bottom half. Twins right fielder Miguel Sano gave what looked like a lazy effort as the ball bounced past him and into the right field corner, though he wasn’t the only outfielder to have the ball play tricks on him in this one.
In the third, Valencia worked the count to 3-1 against Twins starter Tyler Duffey (2-3) and lined an outside pitch to the opposite field for a two-run homer. It was 3-3 in the fifth when his double split the gap in left-center to bring Vogt around from first. The A’s padded their lead later in the inning when Marcus Semien doubled to plate Valencia. Minnesota closed to within 5-4 with a run off Fernando Rodriguez in the eighth, but Vogt delivered a two-run double in the bottom half to give the A’s some cushion.
In the field:
Surkamp was in a bind in the third with the bases loaded and one out. Sano hit a rocket to the left side that Valencia picked cleanly. He threw to second for the force but the A’s couldn’t double up Sano at first, as a run scored (Sano would leave the game after that play with a hamstring injury). Valencia probably prevented a second run from scoring on that play, and Surkamp escaped the threat with no further damage despite hitting two batters in the inning.
Attendance:
The announced crowd was 12,767.
Up next:
The A’s wrap up this homestand with Wednesday’s 12:35 matinee. Sean Manaea (1-3, 7.03) matches up against lefty Pat Dean (1-1, 3.43).