Oakland Athletics vs Minnesota Twins Box Score on Aug 23, 2018

Max Kepler homered, and Joe Mauer moved into a tie for second place with Rod Carew on Minnesota's all-time hits list with an RBI single to help lead the Twins to a 6-4 victory over the visiting Oakland Athletics on Thursday night in Minnesota.

Mitch Garver added a two-run double, and Eddie Rosario and Jorge Polanco also had RBI singles for Minnesota. Alan Busenitz (4-0) picked up the win, allowing one hit in 1 1/3 innings in relief of starter Kohl Stewart, who was yanked after 98 pitches with two outs in the fifth.

Khris Davis hit his major-league-leading 39th home run of the year, Matt Olson had two doubles, and Jed Lowrie also homered for Oakland, which fell 1 1/2 games behind first-place Houston in the American League West and four games behind the New York Yankees for the No. 1 wild-card spot.

Trevor Cahill (5-3) took the loss, allowing five runs on eight hits and two walks over five innings.

Davis led off the second inning with his fifth homer in five games and 10th in the past 17 contests to give the A's a 1-0 lead. Olson followed with a line-drive double to center, went to third on a wild pitch and then scored on a groundout by Stephen Piscotty.

The Twins came back to tie it, 2-2, in the third on two-out RBI singles by Rosario and Polanco and followed that up with a three-run fourth highlighted by a two-run double by Garver.

Garver was pinch-hitting for Bobby Wilson, who sprained his right ankle in the top half of the inning. Mauer followed with his 2,085th career hit, tying Carew for second place on the Twins' all-time list behind only Kirby Puckett (2,304).

Oakland cut it to 5-3 in the fifth when Matt Chapman lined a double to the left field fence, took third on a groundout by Lowrie and scored on a wild pitch. The A's nearly scored another run when Olson doubled and tried to score on a two-out bloop single to left by Marcus Semien, but left fielder Rosario gunned him down at the plate in a bang-bang play.

Kepler hit his 18th homer in the eighth off Blake Treinen to increase the Twins' lead to 6-3. Lowrie ended the scoring with a solo homer with two outs in the ninth off Trevor Hildenberger, who recorded his fourth save.

--Field Level Media