Twins Get the Drop on A’s in 10th Inning
Shannon Stewart kept his eye on the ball while Bobby Crosby lost sight of it.
Stewart scored from first base when Crosby dropped a fly ball in the 10th inning Saturday, lifting the Minnesota Twins over the Oakland Athletics, 3-2.
Stewart beat out an infield single against Jim Mecir (0-3) with one out. Cristian Guzman flied out, and Stewart ran on an 0-1 pitch to Doug Mientkiewicz, who hit a fly ball to shallow left field. Crosby jogged to make the catch, and the ball bounded off his glove into the bullpen area for an error.
“I thought it was going to drop in, anyway. It was right in a good spot,” Stewart said. “I saw [Eric] Chavez and I saw the shortstop. I looked at third and didn’t see the pitcher, so I kept on running. I saw the ball roll away and I was going. It was a good bounce for us.”
Mientkiewicz wound up on second. After an intentional walk to Corey Koskie, pinch-hitter Mike Ryan struck out.
“I make that play 99 out of 100 times,” Crosby said. “It was going away from me, and I put my glove up. The ball was shaded a little bit by my glove. I shouldn’t have put it up so soon. It ticked off the tip. I’m never going to make an excuse for something like that. I should have made the play.”
The extra inning game was the third for the Twins in five days.
On Tuesday night, the Twins played the longest game of the season, a 16-inning loss in Seattle that took 4 hours, 48 minutes.
On Friday night, Minnesota lost to Oakland, 11-9, when Eric Byrnes hit a two-run homer in the 13th inning. There were 504 pitches thrown in a game that lasted 4 hours 53 minutes.
“You never know what’s going to happen in extra innings,” Twin Manager Ron Gardenhire said. “We lost last night and lost in Seattle but we’ve won our share of these things over the years.
“They made a mistake, and we scored a run. You have to feel lucky when you face [Tim] Hudson. You don’t get many opportunities.”
Hudson (3-1) yielded nine hits in nine innings. After giving up three hits in the fourth, he retired 15 of the next 17 batters.
Oakland left the bases loaded in the ninth when J.C. Romero threw a called third strike past Erubiel Durazo.
Romero (1-2) pitched 2 2/3 innings and Joe Nathan struck out the side in the 10th