Twins offense wastes many opportunities in extra-innings loss to Athletics

In a 4-2 loss to the Athletics on Wednesday night, the lasting image might be Twins reliever Génesis Cabrera punching his glove after giving up a go-ahead, two-run homer to Shea Langeliers to begin the 10th inning.

Or it could be right fielder James Outman lining up underneath a fly ball in the ninth inning, losing his footing, falling to the ground and watching a ball sail past him for a double.

Neither was the sole reason the Twins lost to the A’s, one of two American League teams (along with the Chicago White Sox) with a worse record than Minnesota. That falls on the offense, which produced only two hits in 15 at-bats with a runner in scoring position.

The Twins have a 1-5 record on their current homestand against the A’s and Detroit at Target Field. Some pockets of fans from the announced crowd of 18,448 chanted, “Sell the team!” after Langeliers’ homer.

BOXSCORE: Athletics 4, Twins 2 (10)

MLB standings

A 10-minute sequence that started in the bottom of the third inning was an encapsulation of the Twins’ season. Outman hammered a leadoff double down the right-field line off Athletics righthander J.T. Ginn, a heavy sinkerballer. Ryan Fitzgerald followed with a hit to right field, and he aggressively took second on a cutoff throw around first base.

“We’re going to have more guys with the green light going forward, and we’re going to be making a lot of decisions out there on the field using our vision and our awareness,” Baldelli said. “I’d rather play aggressive than passively.”

Despite two runners in scoring position and no outs, the Twins turned it into nothing. Outman was thrown out at the plate, running on contact, when Byron Buxton hit a ground ball to third base. Buxton didn’t attempt to steal on the next four pitches before Trevor Larnach grounded into an inning-ending double play.

Two batters into the fourth inning, the A’s Tyler Soderstrom hit a solo homer off Bailey Ober.

The Twins have been one of the majors’ worst teams at hitting with runners in scoring position this year, and it’s been even worse lately. With losses in seven of their past nine games, the Twins have hit .131 (11-for-84) with runners on second or third in that stretch.

“We gave ourselves chances,” Baldelli said after the Twins outhit the A’s 11-6. “We had chances the whole game.”

Brooks Lee, the next batter, added a game-tying RBI double to center, his sixth straight game with an extra-base hit. Lee has recorded nine RBI over his last four games.

The Twins, who ran into three outs on the basepaths, didn’t have another runner in scoring position until the eighth inning. After Justin Topa stranded the bases loaded in the top half of the inning by striking out pinch hitter Colby Thomas, Lee and Luke Keaschall hit back-to-back singles.

The potential rally fizzled with two fly balls to center and Matt Wallner bouncing into an inning-ending groundout, spiking his helmet as he approached first base.

Ober, who dealt with some back tightness Wednesday, pitched with diminished velocity. He threw only two fastballs above 90 mph. Across the board, all his pitches were about 1 mph below his season average.

Yet it didn’t affect him.

“I feel like the only thing I didn’t have was velo today,” Ober said. “I felt like I had all the shapes, all the locations with each one of my pitches.”

It’s easier to ignore the radar gun when every hitter looks overwhelmed. Well, almost every hitter. Soderstrom opened the second inning with a double to center, and he later scored on a sacrifice fly. In the fourth inning, Soderstrom deposited a down-the-middle changeup over the wall in center field for his solo homer.

Soderstrom had two hits and two runs against Ober. The rest of the A’s lineup went 1-for-17 with a walk.