MINNEAPOLIS — Josh Winder is ruining the Twins' pitching plans. Assigned a role as the long reliever in Minnesota's bullpen, Winder has now made two fill-in starts to help the team cover for a pair of pitchers on the injured list.
Just a hunch: He'll get a third start, too.
Winder muffled the Oakland offense over six innings on Friday, giving up three singles and nothing else, while striking out eight. Jose Miranda and Byron Buxton each hit solo home runs for the Twins, who cruised to their seventh straight Target Field victory, 2-1 over the Athletics.
Using a 94-mph fastball and sliders 10 mph slower, Winder flustered the A's into 16 swing-and-misses, and four 1-2-3 innings. The rookie right-hander gave up an unearned run on an infield hit, a misplayed grounder by Jorge Polanco, and a sacrifice fly — but he has yet to give up an earned run in his 12 innings as a starter.
Winder had some defensive help behind him, most notably in the second inning, when the A's managed two of their three hits off him. With two out and Stephen Piscotty on second base, Oakland shortstop Elvis Andrus lined a hit into left field. Trevor Larnach fielded the ball on one hop and threw a strike to catcher Gary Sanchez that beat Piscotty by 15 feet.
Max Kepler also made a diving catch in right field, and center fielder Gilberto Celestino did the same on Jed Lowrie's sacrifice fly. And with the bases loaded in the ninth, Miranda saved a potential game-tying run by racing forward to scoop up a dribbler from Seth Brown and shovel it to Sanchez for a force out.
The Twins, who snapped their two-game losing streak by winning for the 12th time in 15 games, went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, potentially wasting the strong pitching of Winder, plus shutout innings from Joe Smith, Tyler Duffey and Emilio Pagan.
But Miranda led off the second inning by driving a 3-1 fastball from Oakland lefthander Zach Logue into the second deck in left-center, his first career home run. Three innings later, Buxton led off by depositing a 2-2 fastball into the Athletics' bullpen, just out of the reach of Cristian Pache.
Royce Lewis' major-league debut was a successful one, with the former overall No. 1 pick cleanly fielding three ground balls and, in his final at-bat, lining a single into right field. The crowd of 17,509 rewarded the rookie with a standing ovation for his first major-league hit.
