On Friday night, the Minnesota Twins started the second half of their season strong with a 5-4 win against the struggling Oakland Athletics. The Twins, who had a three-game losing streak coming into the All-Star break, regained their spot atop the AL Central with the win.

Prior to the start of the game, the A’s called up three of their top five prospects for the game: top prospect catcher and first baseman Tyler Soderstrom (#34 according to MLB.com’s Top-100), second baseman Zack Gelof, and RHP Freddy Tarnok. Soderstrom was hitless in four at-bats, Gelof secured his first major league hit with an RBI double, and Tarnok did not make an appearance.

Twins starting RHP Kenta Maeda and A’s LHP Ken Waldichuk both struggled early to find the zone and each team’s offense was able to capitalize with a handful of runs in the first few innings. 

Twins shortstop Carlos Correa and first baseman Donovan Solano led off the inning, with each registering a hit on the first pitch they saw. A sacrifice fly from Byron Buxton scored Correa and a Kyle Farmer triple scored Solano for a 2-0 lead.

In the bottom of the second, A’s shortstop Nick Allen tallied an RBI single, scoring catcher Shea Langeliers. The A’s tacked on two more runs off of Maeda with an RBI double from Gelof and a sacrifice fly from third baseman Jace Peterson. In the top of the fourth, Twins’ second baseman Edouard Julien pinch hit and scorched an RBI double to left, scoring Farmer to tie the game 3-3.

After an absence of scoring from either team for multiple innings, Twins outfielder Joey Gallo broke the 3-3 tie in the top of the ninth with a 2-run blast over the right field wall. A’s center fielder JJ Bleday hit an RBI single to center in the bottom of the ninth, but Twins reliever Jhoan Duran was able to close out the game and earn his 13th save of the season. Twins reliever Griffin Jax earned the win (5-6) and A’s reliever Shintaro Fujinami took the loss (5-8).

The Twins and the A’s will square off again two more times this weekend, today and tomorrow, at the Oakland Coliseum in Oakland, California. The Twins are in first place in the AL Central with a 0.5 game lead over the Cleveland Guardians. The Athletics are 26.5 games out of the AL wild card spot. 

The projected starters for tonight’s game are the Twins’ Pablo Lopez and the A’s Hogan Harris; scheduled to start tomorrow for the series finale are the Twins’ Joe Ryan and the A’s JP Sears.