Athletics End Slugfest Without a Swing, 12-11

After 40 hits and nearly two dozen runs, the Oakland Athletics finally beat the Minnesota Twins without swinging a bat.

Rick Aguilera, who gave up two homers in a three-run ninth, threw a wild pitch to score the winning run in the 11th inning as the A’s defeated the Twins, 12-11, Thursday at Oakland.

“It was quite a thing to lose a game on a wild pitch, but I think it was a fitting way to end this game,” Minnesota Manager Tom Kelly said.

Oakland led, 6-0, after two innings and 8-2 entering the seventh. But Terry Steinbach’s three-run homer against his former team highlighted a seven-run eighth as Minnesota took an 11-8 lead.

Brent Mayne hit a solo homer in the ninth and Matt Stairs hit a two-run home run that tied the score.

“It was ironic that we won on a wild pitch,” Stairs said. “If we lost it, we would be hurting. We kind of sat back a little with the big lead. But we’ll take a hundred wins like we got today.”

With two outs in the 11th and runners on first and third, Aguilera (1-1) threw a wild pitch while facing Jose Canseco, and Tony Batista scored standing up.

Don Wengert (1-2) pitched 3 1/3 innings for the win. Minnesota had 21 hits and Oakland 19.

Boston 2, Baltimore 1--Nomar Garciaparra homered with two outs in the 12th inning to lift the Red Sox past the Orioles at Baltimore.

Garciaparra was hitless in five at-bats before driving a 1-0 pitch from Terry Mathews (0-1) into the left-field stands. Garciaparra’s fourth homer of the season extended his hitting streak to 10 games.

“You get late in the innings like that, you just think about getting on base. You’re shooting for runs, not trying for that big inning,” said Garciaparra, a rookie shortstop. “I knew I hit it well. I thought maybe I had a chance to get on for a double and get into scoring position.”

Cleveland 6, Milwaukee 3--Brian Giles and Tony Fernandez hit two-run homers at Milwaukee as the Indians handed the Brewers their fifth consecutive loss.

Giles, making his third career start in center field in place of injured Marquis Grissom, put Cleveland in front, 2-0, in the second inning with his third home run.

Fernandez made the score 6-3 in the ninth with his homer off Angel Miranda, his first since Sept. 3, 1995.

Jose Mesa, who pitched the ninth for his third save, quickly got two outs. Milwaukee then loaded the bases on John Jaha’s single, Marc Newfield’s walk and Matt Mieske’s infield single, but Mark Loretta popped out to second.

“I think he wanted to come in and get them 1-2-3 and he just started overthrowing it,” Cleveland Manager Mike Hargrove said about Mesa.

Charles Nagy (3-1) gave up three runs--two earned--and eight hits in six-plus innings, struck out eight and walked three.

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BESTS OF THE DAY

BATTING

Player: Tim Naehring

Team: Boston

Performance: 3 for 4, 2 doubles, 1 run

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Ivan Rodriguez

Team: Texas

Performance: 3 hits, 3 RBIs, key two-run double

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Scott Spiezio

Team: Oakland

Performance: three hits, three RBIs, 1 run

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Tony Fernandez

Team: Cleveland

Performance: 3 for 5, 2 runs, two-run homer

Team’s Result: Win

*

PITCHING

Player: Charles Nagy

Team: Cleveland

Performance: 6 innings, 8 hits, 3 runs, 7 strikeouts

Team’s Result: Win

*

Player: Roger Pavlik

Team: Texas

Performance: 7 innings, 6 hits, 2 runs, 7 strikeouts

Team’s Result: Win