OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The Twins received back-to-back stellar pitching performances to take their final series ever at Oakland Coliseum, with Bailey Ober's complete game on Saturday followed up by eight scoreless innings from Pablo Lopez in Sunday's 3-0 win over the Athletics.
López took a perfect game into the sixth inning and matched a career high with 14 strikeouts.
Combined with Ober's dominance, the Twins' starters retired 34 consecutive batters, the final 17 on Saturday and first 17 on Sunday, the longest such streak in franchise history.
López (7-6) limited Oakland to two singles and a walk, retiring the first 17 batters he faced before Lawrence Butler singled on a line drive to right with two outs in the sixth.
“I was aware of it,” López said of six perfect innings. “I think any pitcher that would say he wasn’t would be lying. But it was about just one pitch at a time, like what can I do to win this pitch? And keeping that mentality.”
Added Twins manager Rocco Baldelli: “He was on fire from the beginning. I mean, he had tremendous stuff from the first pitch of the outing to the last. Nothing wavered.”
Byron Buxton homered off Hogan Harris in the second and added an RBI double in the seventh to help the Twins improve to 16-4 against the AL West. Kyle Farmer drove in a run on a fielder’s choice.
“It’s a nice thing to see the ball explode off of (Buxton’s) bat like that because he’s a special player and he can do things that you don’t see every day, things that not every guy can do,” Baldelli said.
Griffin Jax pitched the ninth inning for his seventh save in nine chances for the Twins, who have won 16 of their last 19 meetings with the A’s, including six of seven this season.
Harris (1-1) allowed three runs and five hits with two walks and two strikeouts while pitching into the seventh inning as Oakland fell to 6-17 against the AL Central.
“(Harris) had a nice start up until the seventh when he got touched up a little bit,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “But Hogan did a nice job as well today. ... The success that he’s having, maybe not wins and losses for him right now, it will translate to wins and losses if he continues to just make these steps in the right direction.”
The game was played in 2 hours, 11 minutes in front of a crowd of 18,491, the largest attendance of the season at the Oakland Coliseum.
Many were at the game to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the A's 1974 World Championship team.
NOTES: The Twins' all-time record, including postseason, at Oakland Coliseum was 140-179, perhaps the biggest being the 5-4 win to clinch the 2002 ALDS. ... Lopez also struck out 14 against the Mets last September. ... A's outfielder Miguel Andujar helped turn a rare 7-5 double play in the first inning, making a leaping catch of a ball hit by Royce Lewis and then throwing out Manny Margot trying to reach third base. ... Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers was among the group of players from the 1974 World Champion A's team that were honored before Sunday's game. Fingers was MVP of that season's World Series.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Twins outfielder Max Kepler (neck spasms) remained out of the lineup for a third straight day after leaving Thursday’s game following a headfirst slide into first base.
UP NEXT
Following an off day, Twins righthander Joe Ryan (5-5, 3.13 ERA) opens a three-game series at Arizona on Tuesday night opposite righty Brandon Pfaadt (3-6, 4.37).
The Associated Press provided content for this article
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