The A's wacky and wonderful week in Mazzaro World continues.
Taking the scenic route to their seventh straight win, the A's rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to turn back the Twins, 4-3 before 10,181 at the Coliseum.
At first it looked as if the A's were going to whip up their usual recipe for success when Orlando Cabrera opened Oakland's half of the first inning with a base hit, the fourth straight game he has gotten things going in that fashion.
But this time he did not come around to score. (So much for cutting and pasting from yesterday's recap).
Came the fourth and the Home Nine found itself in an unfamiliar position: on the ugly side of the scoreboard.
The inning started innocently enough for Josh Outman who retired Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau for the first two outs. But then two singles sandwiched around a walk loaded the bases. A base-on-balls issued to Carlos Gomez scored one run, and Matt Tolbert singled home two to make it 3-0.
The lead was short-lived.
Matt Holiday and Jason Giambi worked back-to-back walks to start the bottom of the fourth. Then things took a scary turn with one out when Aaron Cunningham was plunked with a pitch in the head, the ball hitting off his helmet with such force that it ended up near the coach's box at first base.
That only served to anger the streaking A's, and Jack Hannahan made Anthony Swarzak pay with a bases-clearing double to tie the game. (Cunningham is reported to have a concussion).
Outman shut down the Twins but good, striking out Mauer and Morneau to end the fifth.
The other Jack- Cust- put the A's in front leading off the home half with a booming homerun to right.
That was all Outman needed, as he struck out another pair in the sixth, his night ending after punching out Delmon Young. In his six frames of work, Outman allowed three runs on four hits, walking two, and recording 7 K's in running his record to 4-0.
He left the game in the hands of his brilliant bullpen- Wuertz, Breslow, Ziegler, and Bailey- who came through with three innings of scoreless ball, second baseman-turned-right-fielder Adam Kennedy making a sliding catch to end it.
(Special thanks to LB for the headline)
