OAKLAND, Calif. — With Carlos Correa nearing a return — likely within the next couple of days — Royce Lewis’s days in the majors appear to be limited.
But the Minnesota Twins’ top prospect has made them count, and did so again on Wednesday, scoring two of the team’s runs in a 3-1 win over the Athletics on Monday night at the RingCentral Coliseum in Oakland.
Lewis led off the third inning with a double to left and came around to score on a Jorge Polanco single with two outs. The 22-year-old again got the Twins’ offense going two innings later, drawing the first walk of his career. He advanced to second when Nick Gordon laid down a sacrifice bunt and scored once again on a Byron Buxton single, the trio of former first-round picks contributing to what would become the game-winning run.
The Twins’ only other run came an inning later when catcher Gary Sánchez blasted his second home run in the last four games deep into center field.
And thanks to another strong performance from the quartet of pitchers the Twins (21-15) threw out against Oakland, they walked away with another close win against the A’s (15-23) after sweeping them earlier this month in a series of all one-run games.
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Chris Archer, in a 62-pitch effort, threw four innings and surrendered a run on just a pair of hits. After a taxing first inning, Archer worked a nine-pitch second and then cruised through the third, too, before allowing an RBI double to Elvis Andrus in the fourth inning.
That would be the only run given up by a Twins pitcher, as rookie Yennier Cano worked a pair of scoreless frames, and Griffin Jax did as well. For his efforts, Cano picked up his first career win in just his second game.
With Emilio Pagán down after throwing in three straight games, the Twins turned to Tyler Duffey, and the veteran locked down his first save of the season, working in the ninth inning for the first time in more than a month.
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