Anderson Stellar, Athletics Trample Twins 4-1

A’s fans, rejoice.  Brett Anderson is back.

What an encouraging outing for the twenty-four year old lefty, who made his season debut on Tuesday night, and was able to cap it off with a  win thanks to his hard-hitting teammates.

Things looked shaky at first for Anderson, allowing a lead-off infield hit to Ben Revere that would eventually come back to haunt him, as Revere was able to score thanks to a Joe Mauer groundout and a  Brett Anderson wild pitch. 

Later in the inning, outfielder Seth Smith would score off a double to deep left field thanks to new and improved third baseman Josh Donaldson.

After that, he settled down nicely until he hit the 5th inning, where he allowed two straight singles to Justin Morneau and Ryan Doumit.  All would be well, however, as Twins Trevor Plouffe would help him out and ground into what was an astonishing 5-4-3 triple play.

Twins starter Cole De Vries also pitched very well, throwing five innings of one-run ball until Oakland was finally able to get him out of the ballgame in the 6th, with Derek Norris driving Seth Smith in for the go ahead run.  That’s all they would get in the inning, as Adam Rosales would ground out to third to leave Donaldson stranded.

The very next inning was a different story, as the A’s blew the game open putting up two runs off of Minnesota relief pitcher Anthony Swarzak to make it a 4-1 lead.

Grant Balfour would come in to close things out in the top of the 9th, striking out Ben Revere to end the game.

Anderson went seven strong inning, issuing no walks and allowing only one earned run with six punch-outs.  He needed only 86 pitches to get through the outing, throwing 62 of which for strikes.

The A’s will look to take the series tomorrow behind Tommy Milone (9-9 with a 4.03 ERA) who is 0-3 in his last four starts,  allowing an un-earthly twenty earned runs, so he will be watched closely.

Posted in: american league west,american league wild card,ben revere,Brett Anderson,Cole De Vries,Josh Donaldson,Minnesota Twins,Oakland Athletics,Seth Smith