The Athletics and Minnesota Twins close out their three-game set on Wednesday night at 9:05 PM EDT with something increasingly rare for both clubs this season: a chance to feel good about themselves. This is Game 3 of 3 in a series that has otherwise been buried beneath the noise of two last-place-adjacent rosters playing out the string in late August, but rubber games carry their own gravity regardless of standings, and neither side wants to walk away from this stretch with a series loss to show for it.
A quick look at where these teams sit tells the story. Oakland is 51-80 through 131 games, scoring 4.3 runs per game while surrendering 5.7 — a run differential of minus-185 that ranks among the sport's worst. Minnesota isn't playing playoff baseball either at 63-68, but the Twins' minus-54 differential, built on 4.6 runs scored against 5.0 allowed, paints a picture of a team that's been competitive far more often than its record suggests. Both clubs are deep into a long summer with plenty of tape on each other, evidenced by five head-to-head meetings already logged this season, split three games to two in the Athletics' favor.
The pitching matchup favors Oakland on paper. J.T. Ginn takes the ball for the Athletics carrying a 3.605 ERA, easily the more effective arm in this series finale. Connor Prielipp gets the start for Minnesota with a 5.573 ERA, and if his recent stuff mirrors that number, Oakland's lineup — as shorthanded as it is — could find some rare traction against a Twins pitching staff that's already had to piece things together without David Festa, Mike Paredes, Joe Ryan, Cole Sands, Mick Abel, Pablo López and Anthony Banda all sidelined. That's an alarming number of arms unavailable to Minnesota, and it's fair to wonder how much of Prielipp's ERA is a symptom of a rotation stretched thin.
Oakland's own injury report reads like a lineup card of what could have been. Nick Kurtz, Brent Rooker, Tyler Soderstrom, Denzel Clarke, Luis Severino and Gunnar Hoglund are all out for extended stretches, with Jacob Wilson and Shea Langeliers also sidelined. That's the middle of the order and multiple front-line pitchers gone, which makes the Athletics' recent split against Houston — a 7-6 win, a 4-3 win, then a 0-4 loss — more impressive in context. They followed that stretch by dropping two straight to Kansas City, 2-6 and 7-9, a reminder of how thin the margin for error is when this much of the roster is watching from the injured list.
Minnesota arrives having been thoroughly outclassed by San Diego, losing three straight by a combined 3-21 margin before rebounding with back-to-back wins over Atlanta, 6-4 and 4-1. That kind of whiplash — get run off the field, then find your footing — has defined the Twins' season, and Byron Buxton and Ryan Jeffers both being unavailable hasn't helped stabilize things.
For those building lineups on JockBroker, the absence of so many middle-of-the-order threats on both sides changes the complexion of who touches the ball in key spots. Lawrence Butler has been the Athletics' most productive weapon, posting a 10.3 season average with a 19.5-point showing sandwiched into his last three games, though he was blanked in his most recent outing. Jeff McNeil has shown similar boom-or-bust flashes, going from 13.5 points down to 3.5 and then zero. Jonah Heim has been the picture of inconsistency behind the plate.
Minnesota counters with more sustained thump. Brooks Lee has been red-hot, dropping 25.5 and 38 points in consecutive games before going scoreless in his last, while Luke Keaschall's 36.5-point eruption sandwiched between two modest showings speaks to his ceiling. Josh Bell, Kody Clemens and Royce Lewis have all flashed double-digit averages, though Royce Lewis and Trevor Larnach have gone ice-cold of late, both posting zeroes in three straight. No projections are available for this one, so there's no start-or-fade case to make here — just recent form worth weighing before locking anything in.
Given Ginn's edge on the mound and Oakland's better recent form against a Twins team still finding its footing after that San Diego beatdown, look for the Athletics to close this series out at home. Prielipp's ERA is too much of a red flag against a Butler-led lineup that, healthy or not, has shown it can scratch across enough runs to make it count. Final: Athletics 5, Twins 3.
