Stairs Homers A's To Victory

In terms of blown saves, this was one even Doug Jones, who's saved more than he cares to remember, would have found tough to digest.

But Matt Stairs bailed him out, homering to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning to give the Oakland Athletics their fifth straight win, 6-5 over the Minnesota Twins on Saturday.

"Normally, you don't win when you play like we did today

Oakland (20-17), which has won 10 of its last 12, is three games over .500 for the first time since July 27, 1996.

"Both teams battled the whole game. It just so happened we got the last swing," said Stairs, who hit a 2-2 pitch from reliever Eddie Guardado (1-2) over the left-field wall.

"I didn't think he hit it that good, but it kept on going," Guardado said. "That's got to be our luck, to come up short. It hurts because we played good today and put some runs on the board."

Reliever T.J. Mathews (5-0) got one out for the win. Until then, it was shaping up to be an embarrassing way to blow a game.

The Twins cut the lead to 5-4 in the eighth on Ron Coomer's second home run of the game and tied it on a bizarre three-base throwing error by Jones.

Chad Allen reached on an infield single behind first base with two outs, then took off for second when Jones turned his back and walked to the mound with the ball after getting to first too late to catch Giambi's throw.

Caught by surprise, Jones wheeled and tried to throw Allen out at second, but no one was covering the bag. The ball rolled into shallow center field and Allen scored when A's center fielder Jason McDonald was playing too deep to get to the ball in time to make a play at the plate.

"Miguel (Tejada, A's shortstop) and I faked each other out," Jones said. "He started to the bag, and I started to lob the ball. hen he stopped. It was like Barnum & Bailey."

"It was one of those plays when he took off and people weren't looking," Minnesota manager Tom Kelly said. "He's not afraid to take off. He did it a couple of times in spring training. It's a pretty good play."

Jones was relieved when Stairs ended the circus.

"It was like being forgiven," Jones said.

Eric Chavez's first major league home run, a two-run shot over to center, gave the A's a 5-3 lead after Mike Macfarlane singled with one out in the seventh against LaTroy Hawkins.

"Too bad it wasn't the one that did win it for us," Howe said.

Down 3-1 in the sixth, the Twins knocked Oakland starting pitcher Mike Oquist out of the game. After giving up a leadoff double to Matt Lawton, Oquist was hit in the back of his left leg on Coomer's line drive up the middle.

Oquist was taken out of the game as a precaution on an injury later diagnosed as a bruised left calf. Jones got Doug Mientkiewicz to ground into a double play, but then walked Allen before allowing a two-run game-tying double to Corey Koskie.

Giambi's ninth home run of the season gave Oakland a 1-0 lead in the first. Consecutive doubles by Miguel Tejada and Tony Phillips put the A's up 2-0 in the third.

Coomer's first home run of the game and fourth of the season cut the lead to 2-1 in the fourth.

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