Trailing 2-0 going into the bottom of the ninth inning, the Minnesota Twins put two runners on and, with two outs, Josh Willingham ended the game with one swing of the bat. It was the Twins' first walk off win of the season.
Before the ninth inning, the Twins' bats could not come up with a big hit with runners on, only collecting five hits despite being walked seven times. But the Twins' pitching helped keep the walk off dream alive by only allowing two runs, both of which came against the bullpen.
Cole De Vries, making his second MLB start, went five shutout innings, but his five walks cut his evening short. The A's took advantage of the Twins' bullpen in the seventh and eighth innings, scoring a run off both Jeff Manship and Brian Duensing.
In the ninth against A's closer Brian Fuentes, Jamey Carroll led the inning off with a single and Denard Span followed by drawing a walk. Things took a turn when Ben Revere failed to get a sacrifice bunt down and Joe Mauer grounded into a force out. With two outs and two on, it looked like the Twins were going to strand runners once again, but Josh Willingham put a 1-0 pitch in the seats for the dramatic 3-2 win.
Entering this series, the Twins were 0-28 when trailing the game going into the eighth inning. They're now 2-28.
The Twins will go for the series sweep on Wednesday with first pitch slated for 1:10 p.m. ET.
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