Twins finish .500 road trip by getting knocked around 14-3 by Athletics

WEST SACRAMENTO, CALIF. – The Twins’ 11-day, 10-game coast-to-coast marathon road trip didn’t tire the players at all, manager Rocco Baldelli said before Thursday’s finale at Sutter Health Park, because they had dominated the Athletics for three consecutive days.

“When you win some games toward the latter half of the trip,” Baldelli explained, “it energizes guys and you power through some of the days in a really good frame of mind.”

Imagine how exhausted the Twins must feel now.

David Festa gave up eight runs in fewer than four innings; Jorge Alcala surrendered a grand slam; and infielder Jonah Bride pitched the final two innings. The Twins gave up a season-high number of runs, a season-high number of hits and a season-high number of home runs, enabling the A’s to end their nine-game losing streak with a 14-3 rout.

The Twins finished the road trip, which included seven games in minor league ballparks in Florida and California, with a 5-5 record, the final loss coming to a team that had lost 20 of its previous 21 games.

They’ll take it, Baldelli said.

“We had a good road trip. We played a lot of really good baseball on the road trip,” he said. “A [11]-day trip, going all across the country, I was actually overall pleased. Today was a tough day, but overall pleased.”

Festa, activated a couple of hours before his fourth start for the Twins this year, wasn’t the same pitcher who sported a 1.38 ERA entering the game. He fell behind 2-0 to four batters in the first inning, and that quartet produced a single, a walk, a run-scoring single and a 410-foot, three-run homer by another player recently recalled from the minor leagues, Max Muncy.

“The command just wasn’t there. Overall execution was bad,” said Festa, whose ERA ballooned to 5.40. “I fell behind too many times today. It’s frustrating, sure.”

He got through a scoreless second inning with no trouble, but gave up home runs to Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom in the third to fall behind 7-0.

“There were a lot of deep counts. We talk about him pitching efficiently, getting ahead, maybe getting a few quick outs on some swings. Today, it took a lot of work to get through each hitter, it felt like,” Baldelli said of Festa, who threw 80 pitches and got strikeouts on six of the 11 outs he recorded.

When Festa walked Lawrence Butler — only the third batter he has been allowed to face three times this season — with two outs in the fourth, Baldelli replaced him with Alcala.

Things quickly got worse. Wilson singled and Brent Rooker walked to load the bases. Soderstrom then followed with another long home run, the second grand slam the Twins have given up this season.

“He’s a good, young bat, a middle-of-the-order-type lefthanded bat,” Baldelli said of the A’s cleanup hitter, who already has four two-homer games this season. “He can hit the ball hard. He can hit it hard to all fields. He can drive the ball the other way.”

The Twins offense, which had piled up 26 runs in the first three games at the home of the Class AAA River Cats, couldn’t match all that firepower this time, though their own cleanup hitter made contributions, too.

Matt Wallner, benched the past two days because the A’s used lefthanded pitchers, cracked a first-pitch slider from Mitch Spence, making his first start of the season, 399 feet onto the grass berm in right field. It was Wallner’s second home run since returning from the injured list.

“Comes right in and whacks one,” Baldelli said. “Good for him. I’m sure it feels good after not being in the lineup for a couple of days.”

The Twins also added two runs in the seventh on an RBI double by Ty France and a run-scoring single by Brooks Lee.

But Spence and three A’s relievers limited the Twins to only five hits, the 15th time this season they have had so few. They are now 3-12 in those games. The Twins have also lost their past six series finales.