Athletics fall to Twins in Soderstrom-Gelof debuts on Gallo homer in ninth

OAKLAND — Joey Gallo hit a two-run home run with one out in the ninth Friday night to spoil the debut of prospects Tyler Soderstrom and Zack Gelof as the Minnesota Twins beat the Athletics 5-4 at the Coliseum before a crowd of 7,923.

Gallo’s homer, his 16th of the season, came on an 0-1 pitch against Shintaro Fujinami (5-8), who had pitched well in games out of the bullpen heading into the All-Star break and had induced an inning-ending double play against Carlos Correa to end the eighth.

The Athletics fell to 25-68 with their fifth straight defeat. Minnesota evened its record at 46-46 to go one game up on Cleveland in the A.L. Central.

The A’s rallied for a run in the ninth against Minnesota closer Jhoan Duran on a pinch-hit double by Tony Kemp and a run-scoring single by J.J. Bleday, but Seth Brown was retired on a ground ball to second with two runners aboard to end the game.

Griffin Jax (5-6) was the winning pitcher for Minnesota, with Duran picking up his 13th save.

Fujinami was the seventh A’s pitcher as manager Mark Kotsay emptied his bullpen after the All-Star break.

“Gallo likes the ball down and he got into his bat path,” Kotsay said. “He’s a swing and miss guy with a ton of power and the power got him tonight.”

Gelof, who played second base, had an RBI double in the third inning that was a foot or so shy from being a three-run home run to right center for his first major league hit with his family in attendance. Soderstrom, the designated hitter, was 0-for-3 with a walk.

✅ First @MLB hit
✅ First big league RBI
✅ Make your family proud pic.twitter.com/Xb0l7o0m78

— Oakland A’s (@Athletics) July 15, 2023

“Both came as advertised,” Kotsay said. “The ball Gelof hit shows his power. They both took some good at-bats.”

Gelof said he’s not sure where the ball wound up for his first major league hit and he hopes it winds up in the possession of his parents.

“I was looking up, seeing the fans take it all in,” Gelof said. “Hopefully that ball is somewhere getting authenticated.”

Both starting pitcher were long gone by the time the game was decided.

The A’s Ken Waldichuk was ambushed i the first, giving up a double, single and a triple by the time the game was three batters old. A sacrifice fly by Byron Buxton and Kyle Farmer’s RBI triple gave the Twins a 2-0 lead. In the fourth, two Waldichuk walks prompted his removal, with Austin Pruitt surrendering a run-scoring double to pinch-hitter Edouardo Julien.