Greatness to grotesque: Inside the Twins' massive collapse in Oakland

In the 256 minutes, it took the Twins to gift Oakland with a 13-12 victory in 10 innings on Wednesday afternoon, Minnesota baseball fans who hung with the game were treated to performances that were amazingly good and astonishingly inept.

With a 2:38 p.m. start and 6:54 p.m. finish in the Twin Cities, there's a pretty good chance most of you were distracted from watching the entire thing. For that reason, we've decided to fill to offer up some clips so you can see exactly what you missed by not being there for start to finish.

It will make you cheer ... and then it won't.

Remember how the Twins were held scoreless in both games of Tuesday's doubleheader loss to Oakland. That futility lasted two batters into the game when Josh Donaldson came to bat. This was the first of his four hits.

Then there was Nelson Cruz, getting treatment for a leg issue and giving the Twins a 4-3 lead in the third inning with this home run. We won't show the entire trot, but it took Cruz about 30 seconds to round the bases:

It's 4 -3 in the third inning? The offense was needed because Kenta Maeda, the ace, was pitching his worst game since joining the Twins last season. Three innings, seven runs, eight hits.

Cruz, who was receiving treatment in the dugout, limped to the plate in the fifth inning, and turned the score from 7-4 to 7-5 in favor of Oakland. This time we clocked it: It took 38 seconds for him to round the bases. This is painful to watch.

The Twins tied the game at 7 that inning and held a 10-7 going into the bottom of the sixth. Oakland scored two runs. That rally included this routine ground ball to Donaldson. MLB's highlight service deemed it, "All web, no gem."

The Athletics scored two runs and the Twins kept the lead at 10-9 only because Byron Buxton did something that wouldn't have been needed if Donaldson's glove hadn't gotten in the way. This is pretty amazing stuff, even for Buxton. (Analyst Latroy Hawkins almost sounded excited, even.)

More Buxton. Oakland did tie the game at 10-10. Going into the tenth, manager Rocco Baldelli swapped out Donaldson — the automatic runner at second base — for Travis Blankenhorn, called up because of the team's COVID issues in California. File that one away. For now, watch what Buxton did.

Twins 12, Oakland 10, As the Jewish people say at Passover: "Dayenu." (Translation: "It would have been enough.") But, no. Because Donaldson was lifted so Blankenhorn could trot around the bases on Buxton's homer, Luis Arraez moved from second base to third and Blakenhorn took over at second. With two outs, the bases loaded and the Twins ahead 12-10, a grounder is hit to Blankenhorn Game over, right?

So it's 12-11 and Oakland's Ramon Laureano hits a ground ball to Arraez at third base. Game over, right?

Ever seen anything like that?