A's Give Up 4 Runs In 8th, Lose To Twins

OAKLAND (CBS / AP) -- Francisco Liriano rebounded from his worst start of the season to go seven innings, Michael Cuddyer hit his team-leading 16th homer of the season and the Minnesota Twins beat the Oakland Athletics 9-5 Friday night.

Trevor Plouffe scored the go-ahead run on a double play in the third and added a pair of RBI singles, and three other players had two hits apiece.

The Twins won for the third time in their last four games.

Josh Willingham homered twice but the A's didn't do much else and dropped their second straight.

Plouffe had only two hits but was on base all five times up and scored three runs. He reached by fielder's choice in the first against A's starter Gio Gonzalez, on a throwing error by Oakland third baseman Scott Sizemore in the third, and on another fielder's choice in the sixth.

Sandwiched in between was his run-scoring single that drove in Ben Revere in the fifth which gave the Twins a 4-2 lead. Plouffe also had an RBI single during a four-run eighth.

Michael Cuddyer added a three-run homer in the eighth, as Minnesota beat Oakland for the fourth time in six games this year.

Liriano (7-8) wasn't sharp but did enough to beat the A's for only the second time in nine career starts, finishing with four strikeouts and two walks.

The Minnesota lefty, who was knocked out of his previous start by Detroit after just 2 1-3 innings, pitched in and out of trouble and had runners on first and third with one out in the fourth and sixth. Both times, Liriano got David DeJesus to ground into inning-ending double plays.

Oakland went into the game with the highest team batting average since the All-Star break but had only eight hits against the Twins, three of which didn't leave the infield.

Willingham's home run off Liriano in the first briefly tied the game at 2-2. He added a three-run shot in the eighth against Jose Mijares to make it 9-5.

Hideki Matsui went 3 for 4 for the A's but the rest of the offense did little.

They didn't get much help from their pitching, either.

Gonzalez (9-8) allowed five runs and nine hits over 5 1-3 innings. Oakland's All-Star left-hander struck out five but walked three and made a costly throwing error in the third which led to Minnesota's go-ahead run.

Plouffe reached safely when Sizemore's throw pulled first baseman Conor Jackson off the bag. The next batter, Joe Mauer, hit a comebacker to Gonzalez but the A's pitcher threw wildly into center field, allowing Plouffe to move to third.

Cuddyer then grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, Plouffe scoring to give Minnesota a 3-2 lead.

The Twins opened the fifth with three straight singles to make it 4-2. Ben Revere had an infield hit, stole second then scored on Plouffe's single.

Gonzalez continued to struggle in the sixth, allowing a pair of singles before issuing back-to-back walks to Drew Butera and Revere, the second forcing in Delmon Young.

Minnesota broke it open with a four-run eighth when Cuddyer hit his 16th homer of the year.

Jason Kubel's two-run double in the first gave the Twins a 2-0 lead.

NOTES: It's the 10th time in Willingham's career he's hit two home runs. ... Liriano is 4-3 since coming off the disabled list June 6. ... Matsui was honored by the A's in a pre-game ceremony commemorating his 500th career home run. ... Oakland SS Cliff Pennington extended his career-high hitting streak to 13 games.

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