OAKLAND, CALIF. – Even the Oakland Coliseum had apparently seen enough.
In the fifth inning of Tuesday's second game of a doubleheader, the wall of left-field lights atop the stadium suddenly went dark. And while lighting — not lightning — delays aren't unheard of at the 55-year-old park, the timing was a little too conspicuous to go unchecked.
The Twins had already lost 7-0 in the first game, giving up three home runs, including a grand slam. They lost the second 1-0, marking the first time since their inaugural season of 1961 they were shut out in both ends of a doubleheader.
The Twins trailed by that 1-0 deficit in Game 2 when the electricity failed, forcing a 25-minute delay that the in-game sound system chose to fill with a light-themed playlist, including Kanye West's "All of the Lights" and Demi Lovato's "Neon Lights."
Eventually, one bulb illuminated. The two outermost panels then mostly relit. And the teams bravely decided to soldier on in a slightly dimmer atmosphere. A delay, though, was really not what the Twins needed, after just emerging from two days of fairly strict quarantining after an uptick in positive COVID-19 cases on the team.
The Twins finished the second game with only two hits, both singles. They left the tying run on third base in the sixth inning, when Josh Donaldson was called out on strikes against reliever Lou Trivino, and then failed to take advantage in the seventh and final inning, when A's shortstop Elvis Andrus' error put two runners on with one out. Jake Diekman retired Brent Rooker and Willians Astudillo, leaving the visiting team with their eighth loss in nine games.
Meanwhile, the Coliseum might be failing, but its team is not. The A's have won 10 games in a row, the majors' longest winning streak so far this season.
This makes back-to-back shutout losses for the Twins for the first time since 2015. And in two seven-inning doubleheaders this season, the Twins have managed two, one, zero and zero runs for an 0-4 record.