Oakland righthander Kendall Graveman walked only five batters over his first four starts. But Wednesday night, he faced the grind-it-out Twins.

Through three innings Wednesday, the Twins walked four times, nearly doubling Graveman's season total. Three of those walks came around to score, and the Twins went on to knock out another starter early on the way to their 7-4 victory over the Athletics that kept them in first place in the American League Central, four percentage points ahead of Cleveland..

"He's tough," Twins manager Paul Molitor said. "He throws a lot of fastballs. And he's got a lot of movement and can hump it up there a little bit. Our guys made him stay in the zone for the most part.

"That was really good to see. That's all you can do is try to get a good pitch to hit. It you get to two strikes, you fight."

W L Pct GB Minnesota 14 11 .560 - Cleveland 15 12 .556 - Chi White Sox 14 12 .538 0.5 Detroit 14 13 .519 1 Kansas City 9 17 .346 5.5

A few things have gone right for the Twins, who have won four in a row and six of their past seven. But a running theme during the streak has been the rise in winning the one-on-one battles with the opposing pitcher.

Minnesota Twins third baseman Miguel Sano (22) scored on a single by Minnesota Twins first baseman Kennys Vargas (19) in the first inning. ] RENEE JONES SCHNEIDER • renee.jones@startribune.com The Oakland A’s verses the Minnesota Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minn., on Wednesday, May 3, 2017.

Graveman had thrown 94 pitches by the time he was removed from the game in the fourth inning. The Twins ended up with six walks — the eighth time this season the Twins have had at least that many walks in a game. They began the day second in the majors in walks, at the point of the season where sample size slowly turns into reliable traits.

They used their success against Graveman to race to a 5-1 lead. Things got interesting in the ninth when Oakland loaded the bases with no one out and pushed a run home against Brandon Kintzler, but former Twin Trevor Plouffe grounded into a game-ending double play.

Graveman throws a heavy sinker and forces ground balls, but Brian Dozier led off the first with a walk and went to third on Graveman's errant pickoff throw. Miguel Sano and Joe Mauer also drew walks to load the bases.

Kennys Vargas followed with a busted-bat lob shot that bounced by second baseman Chad Pinder and into center field for a two-run single. Oakland scored in the third (on an earlier double-play grounder by Plouffe) to cut the lead in half.

Sano led off the bottom of the third with a sharp single to left, and Mauer walked again. Pitching coach Curt Young went to mound to consult with Graveman. Vargas blasted the next pitch over the fence for a three-run home run and 5-1 Twins lead.

"He was ready to hit the first pitch," Molitor said. "I think [Graveman] wanted to go inside with that front door two-seamer, but he left it out over the plate."

Yonder Alonso hit a two-run home run off lefthander Hector Santiago in the fourth to make it 5-3, but Byron Buxton tripled and scored on a groundout in the fourth to put the Twins ahead 6-3. Eddie Rosario's RBI double in the sixth put them up 7-3.

The Twins are averaging 6.1 runs over their past seven games, and their starting pitchers have noticed.

"I love it," said Santiago, who wore custom cleats in honor of his grandmother, Nelly Rodriguez, who died last week. "Once Vargas got that broken bat up the middle and came back with that three-run home run later on, it was like, 'All right, we've got some time to play.' "