Home runs by Ryan Jeffers and Harrison Bader lift Twins over A’s

WEST SACRAMENTO, CALIF. – Ryan Jeffers homered in the first inning and Harrison Bader connected in the fifth, and that’s really all you need to know to figure out how the Twins did Wednesday night.

Sure, they added on their usual handful of runs in the late innings, but the Twins had already fulfilled their most-predictive requirement for victory. When the Twins hit more than one home run this season, they are 17-0, including Wednesday’s 6-1 romp over the Athletics at Sutter Health Park.

“A lot of it has been approach-based. We got big swings — RJ and Bader got us going with those good swings, but we also had guys draw [four] walks, we had guys hit some balls pretty good,” manager Rocco Baldelli said of his team, which has more two-plus homer games than any AL team but the New York Yankees. “I’m really pleased with the type of at-bats we’ve had here.”

BOXSCORE: Twins 6, Athletics 1

MLB standings

Oh yes, here. Visiting Sacramento, it turns out, is a pretty good indicator of victory, too. The Athletics, taking the long way to a new park in Las Vegas three or more years from now, fell to 9-22 in their minor league temporary home.

And yes, simply playing the Athletics is a pretty strong clue that you’re going to win, too. The A’s have lost nine games in a row, 20 of their past 21 and 24 of their past 27.

The Twins are certainly enjoying their holiday from competitive baseball here, having outscored the A’s 26-8 over three games, with one more to come Thursday afternoon. And could you blame the Twins for looking forward to when the A’s visit Target Field in late August?

For a team that has scored fewer than three runs 21 times this season — and gone 1-20 in them — hitting in California’s capital city is a blast for the Twins. And their manager believes it could carry over in more run-averse locales.

“It’s helpful. It definitely helps guys [gain] some confidence,” Baldelli said. “It helps guys trust that just having good at-bats leads to positive things. Just keep having good at-bats on the offensive end, and good things will likely come.”

They certainly did Wednesday. Just five pitches into his first career start, opener Justin Sterner left a two-strike fastball at the top of the strike zone and in the middle of the plate. Exactly where Jeffers likes it.

His swing propelled the baseball over the A’s clubhouse in left-center field, a 414-foot blast that gave Jeffers four homers on the season, each of them on the road.

In the fifth, facing Jeffrey Springs, normally an A’s starter, Royce Lewis led off with a sharp single to left. Bader missed a couple of changeups, but on a 2-2 count, he blasted a slider 391 feet, his sixth home run of the year.

As they have in each of the first two games here, the Twins kept adding on in the late innings; in fact, they’ve scored 10 runs in the seventh inning or later.

This time, Jeffers drew a one-out walk in the eighth, then took off for second base as Trevor Larnach stroked a single, moving Jeffers to third. But he was waved home when the ball popped out of center fielder Denzel Clarke’s glove and hit his foot, kicking backward several feet for an error.

Two batters later, pinch runner Kody Clemens scored on Willi Castro’s single, giving the Twins a 5-1 lead.

And in the ninth, after Christian Vázquez and Byron Buxton walked, Jeffers drove a hit the opposite way, bringing home Vázquez with the Twins’ final run.

All the offense made a winner of Zebby Matthews (1-1), who gave up one run over five innings. That came in the fifth, when Lawrence Butler hit a two-out single and Jacob Wilson doubled him home.

Four Twins relievers pitched an inning each, racking up the swing-and-misses. With Louie Varland and Griffin Jax each striking out the side, the bullpen totaled 10 whiffs in four innings.

“Each guy simply did his job. Zebby threw the ball well, and then we brought in our back-end relievers, and they executed well,” Baldelli said. “It wasn’t anything in particular except our guys just making a lot of good pitches and getting good results. That’s the way we like it.”

That, plus two home runs, is a great combination for the Twins.