Bradley was excellent on Tuesday, but two big innings by the Athletics handed Minnesota a 4-2 loss.
The Minnesota Twins got a piece of history and a painful loss in the same night.
Taj Bradley struck out the side on nine pitches in the fifth inning of Tuesday's game at Sutter Health Park, the first immaculate inning on record in franchise history according to MLB.com, yet the Athletics still walked away with a 4-2 win that stung a team chasing a playoff spot.
Byron Buxton's early exit with right hip soreness made the evening even worse, and the combination summed up where this club sits in late August, close enough to dream and thin enough to worry.
A Historic Fifth Inning
Bradley was outstanding in the loss.
He struck out 11 over 6.2 innings, matching his career high, while allowing seven hits and one walk on 99 pitches.
The fifth was the showstopper, as he blew through Carlos Cortes, Brian Serven and Henry Bolte with nine straight strikes.
The damage came elsewhere.
Cortes hit a two-run homer in the second inning after a two-out double, and the Athletics stretched the lead to 4-0 in the sixth on a Tommy White RBI double and a Donovan Walton run-scoring single.
Bradley fell to 9-6 with a 3.97 ERA despite reaching 169 strikeouts on the season.
Minnesota's push came in the seventh, when Kaelen Culpepper doubled home Kody Clemens and Victor Caratini brought in another run with a groundout, but the offense went quietly after that, finishing the night with four hits while striking out 12 times.
A start like Bradley's deserves a better ending.
The Twins have leaned on contributions up and down the order lately, from Luke Keaschall's work atop the lineup to Kody Clemens heating up in the playoff race, and they needed one more of those nights on Tuesday.
Buxton Exit Adds to the Concern
Buxton left in the seventh inning after chasing Bolte's triple into the gap, and manager Derek Shelton called the center fielder too important to take chances with, saying the team would see how he felt Wednesday.
"Fortunately, it is a night game. It's not a quick turnaround and we do have some time," Shelton said.
Buxton has already served two stints on the injured list for right hip pain since early July, so any recurrence is a real concern for a lineup that needs his bat.
The Race Rolls On
The loss dropped Minnesota to 64-69 on the season, third in the AL Central and three games behind Cleveland for the final wild card spot entering Wednesday.
The Twins close the six-game road trip with the series finale against the Athletics on Wednesday night, take Thursday off, and then open a weekend home set against the White Sox, part of a long stretch of division games that will decide whether this September means anything.
Getting Buxton back quickly, and getting Bradley some runs, would go a long way toward keeping the race alive, as the club has already lost pitching depth this month.
