Athletics kick Twins when they're down, sweep series with 8-3 victory

Phil Miller, Star Tribune on Aug 21, 2025

Published in Baseball

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MINNEAPOLIS — We’ve reached the helmet-bashing stage of the Twins’ rapidly unraveling season.

Royce Lewis, batting just .199 at Target Field, .175 in August, and .136 during this homestand, was robbed of a potential extra-base hit by A’s left-fielder Tyler Soderstrom in the sixth inning Thursday, and took it out on his headwear when he reached the dugout, pounding it several times against the bat rack in frustration.

No doubt he was also acting on behalf of his teammates, who absorbed a lifeless 8-3 loss that completed the Athletics’ first Target Field sweep since 2014.

Having lost six of seven games at home over the past week, the Twins now embark on a road trip to face the last-place White Sox and the first-place Blue Jays, a challenge somewhat similar to the Tigers/A’s homestand they just completed, and it will be interesting to see whether they can revive themselves in Chicago or Toronto.

The Twins, after all, batted only .204 as a team this week, scored an average of 3.3 runs per game in getting outscored 38-23, and went 11 for 67 (.164) with runners in scoring position.

Yeah, that helmet had it coming.

Lewis got a small measure of serenity, perhaps, in the ninth inning, when he again hit a long fly ball to Soderstrom on the warning track. The outfielder fell to the ground as he made the catch, but umpire Dan Iassogna ruled, and a replay challenge confirmed, that the ball had made contact with the wall as Soderstrom fell, making the catch a trap. Lewis reached second base, driving in Kody Clemens, for the day’s final run.

The rebuilding A’s have won 17 of their past 25 games.

Thursday’s finale, before an announced crowd of 21,837 sunbathers, got out of hand early. Starter José Ureña, who hadn’t allowed more than two runs in any of his three previous appearances, let wildness draw him into a six-run second inning. Two walks and a hit batter made Lawrence Butler’s bases-loaded double that much more damaging, and former Twin Brent Rooker followed with an RBI double of his own.

Ureña didn’t allow another run in his five-inning start, stranding four A’s runners, but Michael Tonkin, riding a seven-inning scoreless streak, surrendered a pair, starting with the first batter he faced. Rookie Nick Kurtz lined a Tonkin sinker over the center-field wall, his 26th homer of the season. An inning later, Tonkin walked catcher Willi MacIver, who immediately stole second base so he could score on Max Schuemann’s two-out single.

The Twins, on the other hand, didn’t manage a hit off A’s starter Jack Perkins until the fourth inning, when Trevor Larnach doubled and Perkins walked Brooks Lee and Luke Keaschall to load the bases with no outs. Set up for a big rally, the Twins didn’t hit a ball out of the infield for the rest of the inning, though they still managed to push two runs across on infield hits by James Outman and Austin Martin.

The inning ended, however, when Clemens misjudged the defense and tried to score on Martin’s hit. He was easily thrown out at the plate, ending the inning.