OAKLAND, Calif. — As he defended the Twins' demotion of Royce Lewis to the minors on Wednesday, Rocco Baldelli felt the need to throw in a timely reminder.
"Well, we're getting Carlos Correa back," the manager pointed out.
Boy, were they ever.
Correa come off the injured list with a single, a double and a walk, scoring twice and driving in a run as the Twins pounded the Athletics, 14-4. By taking two of three to open a weeklong road trip, Minnesota won a three-game series at Oakland Coliseum for the first time since 2010.
It hasn't been quite that long since Sonny Gray won a game in the ballpark where he spent the first five seasons of his career, but four years, 10 months is a long time, too. Gray took a couple of innings to get comfortable, and twice he allowed a two-out extra-base hit — Ramon Laureano's first-inning double, and Seth Brown's third-inning triple — that turned into a run with a follow-up single.
But Gray retired the last seven hitters he faced in his six-inning, two-run stint to lock up his first victory as a Twin.
He got a lot of help from the offense behind him, of course, a lineup that contributed at least one hit from every starter except … well, except Byron Buxton, their most dangerous hitter. The Twins, limited to just 12 runs in their first five meetings with Oakland, blew past that total on Wednesday alone with a three-run first, another run in the third, two in the fourth and a five-run explosion in the sixth inning that was so time-consuming, Gray threw a half-dozen pitches in the down-the-line bullpen just to stay loose.
They capped off the victory with three runs in the ninth, Gilberto Celestino driving in two of them while pinch-hitting for Correa.
The Twins piled up 14 hits and 10 walks on the day, though oddly did not hit a home run for the first time in six games. In addition to Correa, the Twins were powered by Gary Sanchez, who drove in three runs with a double and a two-out bases-loaded single, snapping his streak of extra-base hits without a single at seven straight. Luis Arraez had three hits, two of them RBI doubles.
