Twins 9, Athletics 5
Michael Cuddyer belted a three-run homer, and Trevor Plouffe had two RBIs and scored twice as the Minnesota Twins defeated the host Oakland Athletics 9-5 on Friday night.
Josh Willingham hit two homers and drove in all of Oakland's runs.
Jason Kubel had two RBIs and Francisco Liriano rebounded from his shortest outing of the season for Minnesota, which improved to 3-2 on its 10-game road trip.
Kubel delivered a two-run double in the first before Liriano served up a two-run blast by Willingham in the bottom half.
Plouffe helped give the Twins the lead for good when he scored on a double-play grounder by Cuddyer in the third and hit an RBI single off Gio Gonzalez (9-8) in the fifth.
Plouffe plated another run with a single in the eighth, and Cuddyer launched his 16th homer of the season two batters later for a 9-2 advantage.
Liriano (7-8), who lasted only 2 1/3 innings in a loss to Detroit on Sunday, allowed two runs and six hits over seven innings. The lefthander improved to 1-2 and lowered his ERA to 5.46 in six career starts at Oakland.
Willingham capped his first multi-homer performance since Aug. 25, 2009 with a three-run shot in the eighth for Oakland, which had won seven of nine at home.
The Athletics' Cliff Pennington singled in the fifth to extend his hitting streak to 13 games.