A’s take game two after inside the park home run from Mark Kotsay

The Minnesota Twins hopes for returning to the World Series may have ended on a freak inside the park homerun from the Oakland A’s center fielder Mark Kotsay.

With two outs in the top of the seventh the Mark Kotsay drove a ball to center field that got by a diving Torii Hunter resulting in a two run inside the park home run. The A’s added a run in the ninth on a wild pitch from Twins reliever Joe Nathan and took game two 5-2 and now hold a commanding 2-0 lead in the best of five series.

Oakland got on the board in the fifth after Marco Scutaro’s double scored Nick Swisher. One out later Jason Kendall singled to score Scutaro and the A’s led 2-0.

After pitching five strong innings, A’s starter Esteban Loaiza gave up back to back homeruns to Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau to even the score at 2-2. Loaiza turned the ball over to Kiko Calero who finished the sixth inning with no further damage.

Huston Street came on in the ninth and got two quick outs before giving up a single and a walk. He then got Nick Punto to pop up to Scutaro at shortstop and end the game.