OAKLAND, Calif. — As he defended the Twins' demotion of Royce Lewis to the minors on Wednesday morning, Rocco Baldelli felt the need to throw in a timely reminder.
Twins cap off series in Oakland with fire, winning 14-4
Gary Sanchez continued his hot tear at the plate, and Carlos Correa returned from a stint on the IL with a single, a double and a walk, scoring twice as the Twins trounced the A's.
"Well, we're getting Carlos Correa back," the manager pointed out.
Boy, were they ever.
Correa came off the injured list with a single, a double and a walk, scoring twice and driving in a run as the Twins pounded the Athletics 14-4. By taking two of three to open a weeklong road trip, Minnesota won a three-game series at Oakland Coliseum for the first time since 2010.
"I'm not surprised one bit," Baldelli said of Correa's return. "To watch him go up there, have a pretty good idea of what he's trying to do even in his first at-bat, and just whack one to the right side — it shows a lot of composure. It shows a lot of skill."
It shows a lot of impatience with the injured list, the shortstop said.
"I was getting kind of bored in the dugout. I was helping out in different ways, but at some point, I started itching," Correa said of his 11-day absence after suffering a bruised middle finger when he was hit by a pitch. "Getting back out there, it definitely felt like Opening Day all over."
For Sonny Gray, it felt like Homecoming. The former A's All-Star had never beaten his old team, had never won a game as a visitor at the coliseum, so he was even more determined than usual, if that's possible, to pitch well.
"I'd faced them before, and I hadn't been great, to be honest," said Gray, whose last victory in Oakland came in 2017. "It's something that I really wanted to do," particularly since it means he has now beaten all 15 American League teams.
Gray took a couple of innings to get comfortable, and twice he allowed a two-out extra-base hit — Ramon Laureano's first-inning double, and Seth Brown's third-inning triple — that turned into a run with a follow-up single.
But Gray retired the last 10 hitters he faced in his six-inning, two-run stint to lock up his first victory as a Twin. He feels like a changed pitcher, he said afterward, ready to be the top-of-the-order starter the Twins believe he'll be.
"In about the third inning, I was like, 'All right, now it's time to go,' " Gray said. "I started throwing the ball a little bit harder. I started getting after it a little more. I felt great."
So did the offense behind him, of course, a lineup that contributed at least one hit from every starter except … well, except Byron Buxton, their most dangerous hitter. The Twins, limited to just 12 runs in their first five meetings with Oakland, blew past that total on Wednesday alone with a three-run first, another run in the third and two in the fourth, and a five-run explosion in the sixth inning that was so time-consuming, Gray threw a half-dozen pitches in the down-the-line bullpen just to stay loose.
They capped off the victory with three runs in the ninth, Gilberto Celestino driving in two of them while pinch-hitting for Correa.
"There was a lot of action. There were a lot of baserunners," Baldelli said, pointing out that the Twins were 10-for-17 with runners in scoring position. "That's what we're looking for, but we found a way to get them home."
The Twins piled up 14 hits and 10 walks on the day, though oddly did not hit a home run for the first time in six games as they opened their lead in the American League Central to 3 1⁄2 games.
In addition to Correa, the Twins were powered by Gary Sanchez, who drove in three runs with a double and a two-out bases-loaded bloop single into left field, snapping his streak of extra-base hits without a single at seven straight. Luis Arraez had three hits, two of them RBI doubles.
Shohei Ohtani won his third Most Valuable Player Award and first in the National League, and Aaron Judge earned his second American League honor on Thursday.