In a rare spot of Sunday night baseball precipitatedby yesterdays rain out, the Minnesota Twins & Oakland As engaged in a wild battle that might as well have transpired at Coors Field for all the long balls barreled the 84-degree heat and 73-degree dew point of Minneapolis, the balls began flying early when Royce The Magnificent plated himself and Willi Castro with a long drive over the bullpens in the first inning for a 2-0 Twins lead! Im now beginning to understand the reverence with which older Twins fans talk about Kirby Puckett Byron Buxton home run robbery in CF Simeon Woods Richardson Jersey, a few ringing doubles from Oakland batsmen off SP Chris Paddack put the visitors in the drivers seat 3-2. Eat your heart out, Kirby/Torii/Byron!Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports As Twins Territory held its collective breath for another Lewis PA in the 2nd, the trio of Martinsaid nahhhhdont need him! and reclaimed a 5-3 lead. Goodbye!Photo by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images Looking to restore some law and order, The Sheriff instead initiated a jailbreakhome runs from JJ Bleday & Tyler Soderstromand the game was tied 5-5 as Paddack slinked towards the sunset in favor of Louie Varland. Not Paddacks nightPhoto by Adam Bettcher/Getty Images Undeterred by the latest deflation Joe Ryan Jersey, noted speedsterCarlos Santana turned a single into a hustle double to lead off the 3rd and Martins subsequent two-bagger swapped spots with Santana for a 6-5 Twins margin. Martin makes contactPhoto by David Berding/Getty Images Thanks to Varlandtodays call-up per doubleheader allowancethe burning barn was extinguished for a periodas each team regrouped a bit on the pitching Twins struck again in the 6th when Lewiswalked and Correasingled him in to increase the lead to 7-5. Bash Bros 2.0Bruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports The first two outs of the 7th continued to come easy for Varlandbut MLB rules still require three and that posed a problem for Louie, who allowed four straight singles and saw the Oakland-ers again knot the scorebefore being removed for Josh Staumontwho snuffed out further damage. Varland was greatuntil he wasntBruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports But in the bottom of the 8th, Jose Miranda decided hed had enough of the heat and humidity and golfed a ball over the LF fence to give the Twins yet another 8-7 lead. No longer a bound babyBruce Kluckhohn-USA TODAY Sports Of course, if you had been watching/listening all night you got the sneaking suspicion it wouldnt be an easy 1-2-3 9th. After Bledays fourth safety of the evening, Miguel Andujar rocketed a Griffin Jax offering to CF and caused many sphincters to tightenand every batter who dug in recorded at least one reporter James Fillmore on the scene tonight with regular updates from the sparse makeup sir and no maamnot after a four-game sweep!Comment of the Game SooFoo Fan expressing the proper amount of incredulity for tonights action. Kent Hrbek Jersey