Those swingin’ A’s take 2 of 3 from Twins

8/11-8/13 - Metropolitan Stadium
Twins 5, A's 4
Dave Stewart vs Jim Perry
Oakland scratched and clawed to a 3-0 lead after 4 1/2 innings only to see Minnesota erase it with one swing of the bat by pinch hitter Tom Brunansky.  Bruno was called on to bat for Zoilo Versalles with 2 out in the bottom of the 5th.  One might swing turned a 3-0 Oakland lead into a 3-3 tie.  Up until that point "Smoke", Dave Stewart, was cruising.  Minny touched him for two more runs in the bottom of the 6th.  Amazingly Stewart only allowed 2 runs after the Twins loaded the bases with nobody out.  Both runs scored on ground outs to make it 5-3.  Oakland threatened in the 8th thanks to a fielding error by Versalles at short on a slice job by Feris Fain.  Back to back walks by reliever Al Worthington forced in Billy North to make it a 1 run game.  Worthington rescued himself by striking out Bert Campaneris to end the inning.  Rick "Aggie" Aguilera notched his 4th save of the campaign by fanning two to close out a perfect 9th inning.

A's 6, Twins 5
Vida Blue vs Jim Kaat
The early going was not going well for the lefties.  Oakland hammered Kaat for 5 runs in the top of the 1st as 10 men came to the plate.  The big blow was a bases clearing double by catcher Gene Tenace, which made it 3-0.  Eddie Joosts RBI double scored Tenace to make it 4-0 and Vic Power's RBI single ended the scoring.  One would think 5 runs would be enough offense for a pitcher of Vida Blue's caliber to protect.  Unfortunately for Oakland their fire throwing lefty began leaking oil right out of the garage.  A solo shot by Kirby Puckett with one out in the first made it 5-1.  An RBI double by Earl Battey in the bottom of the second made it 5-2.  Back to back RBI singles by Rod Carew and Puckett made it a 1 run game and a solo shot by Roy Sievers in the 5th tied it up at 5-5.  By the 7th inning both starters were gone with the game still tied.  Neither posted a quality start.  Kaat deserves kudos for recovering from a horrific 1st inning to toss 6 shutout innings in a row until he tired after 123 pitches.  Blue just never really had it going all day and struggled with his control as evidenced by the 4 walks and 5 k's he posted.  Rollie Fingers would come on to sta the 8th and he would be just the tonic the A's needed.  The man with the handlebar mustache allowed just one hit in 2 1/3 innings of relief.  Jack Karlick would take over for the Twins and do the same for the 8th and 9th innings.  The 10th inning however would see Kralick give up a lead off double to Tenace.  After getting Joost and Power to fly out Kralick looked to escape the 10th without  any damage.  Tony Phillips, who entered the game as a replacement for the injured Dick Green, lined a single to right to score Tenace and give the A's the lead.  Fingers would start the 10th and easily get Mickey Vernon to pop out to the catcher on a jam job.  Fingers would leave the game on the winning side of the ledger as it was now time for "the Eck", which was bad news for Twin batters.  Both Bobby Allison and Eddie Yost went down swinging as the man with the mullet gave them nothing to hit en route to his 4th save of the season.

A's 3, Twins 2
Blue Moon Odom vs Camilo Pascual
The rubber match of the series followed the perfect Oakland formula.  Get an early lead.  Have your starter go 7 innings.  Have Fingers setup in the 8th and Eckersley close it out in the 9th.  All went according to plan, well almost.  The's A's did have an early 3-1 lead thanks to a solo shot by a pair of unlikely sources:  Bill North & Rickey Henderson, and a likely source:  Reggie Jackson.  The unplanned part was the trouble Eck got into in the bottom of the 9th.  Harmon Killebrew led off the inning with a tape measure shot to make it 3-2.  Mickey Vernon then shocked the world by walking vs Eckersley, a man who NEVER walks anyone.  Bobby Allison swung for the fences looking for the game winner and crapped out by fanning on 3 pitches.  Brunansky was called upon to pinch hit once again, but could not replicate his heroics of the previous day.  With 2 out Earl Battey singled to right to put runners on the corners.  A hit ties the game up, but Versalles line shot wound up in Carney Lansford's glove and not left field.  Dennis Eckersley did not have his best stuff, but still managed to survive and get his 5th save.
On a side note:  A's slugger Jose Canseco recoreded the less than coveted golden sombrero by fanning 4 consecutive times in a pittiful 0-4 effort.  Reggie, who went 2 for 4 with a homer barely missed having a 4 homer day.  His first 2 shots were caught against the wall and his double hit off the top of the wall in the 8th.