“Sick!” said Buxton, who tied a career high with five RBI. “For him to have those bases loaded, nobody out, and just kind of bear down, and everybody knows Joe. You can see him lock it in a little bit more. And that was fun. Seeing him dominate like that, that was fun. Real fun.”
Still, it was an odd start for Ryan, who walked a season-high three A’s and tied his season-low by striking out only four. He threw 96 pitches to get through five innings, not a clean inning among them, though he blamed some inconsistency by home plate umpire Lance Barrett for part of that.
“The [automatic ball/strike system] needs to be here. These guys are so bad in big situations,” Ryan complained, believing missed calls contributed to his three-run fourth inning, when Lawrence Butler homered to deep center field. Without those calls, “I go six [inning] there probably for sure, and save another bullpen arm.”
The Twins’ bullpen was its usual sturdy self anyway against the last-place A’s, who have lost seven straight games and 21 of their last 24. A’s hitters managed only one hit over the final four innings.
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