OAKLAND, Calif. — As he defended the Twins' demotion of Royce Lewis to the minors on Wednesday morning, Rocco Baldelli felt the need to throw in a timely reminder.
"Well, we're getting Carlos Correa back," the manager pointed out.
Boy, were they ever.
Correa came off the injured list with a single, a double and a walk, scoring twice and driving in a run as the Twins pounded the Athletics 14-4. By taking two of three to open a weeklong road trip, Minnesota won a three-game series at Oakland Coliseum for the first time since 2010.
"I'm not surprised one bit," Baldelli said of Correa's return. "To watch him go up there, have a pretty good idea of what he's trying to do even in his first at-bat, and just whack one to the right side — it shows a lot of composure. It shows a lot of skill."
It shows a lot of impatience with the injured list, the shortstop said.
"I was getting kind of bored in the dugout. I was helping out in different ways, but at some point, I started itching," Correa said of his 11-day absence after suffering a bruised middle finger when he was hit by a pitch. "Getting back out there, it definitely felt like Opening Day all over."
For Sonny Gray, it felt like Homecoming. The former A's All-Star had never beaten his old team, had never won a game as a visitor at the coliseum, so he was even more determined than usual, if that's possible, to pitch well.
"I'd faced them before, and I hadn't been great, to be honest," said Gray, whose last victory in Oakland came in 2017. "It's something that I really wanted to do," particularly since it means he has now beaten all 15 American League teams.
Gray took a couple of innings to get comfortable, and twice he allowed a two-out extra-base hit — Ramon Laureano's first-inning double, and Seth Brown's third-inning triple — that turned into a run with a follow-up single.
But Gray retired the last 10 hitters he faced in his six-inning, two-run stint to lock up his first victory as a Twin. He feels like a changed pitcher, he said afterward, ready to be the top-of-the-order starter the Twins believe he'll be.
"In about the third inning, I was like, 'All right, now it's time to go,' " Gray said. "I started throwing the ball a little bit harder. I started getting after it a little more. I felt great."
So did the offense behind him, of course, a lineup that contributed at least one hit from every starter except … well, except Byron Buxton, their most dangerous hitter. The Twins, limited to just 12 runs in their first five meetings with Oakland, blew past that total on Wednesday alone with a three-run first, another run in the third and two in the fourth, and a five-run explosion in the sixth inning that was so time-consuming, Gray threw a half-dozen pitches in the down-the-line bullpen just to stay loose.
They capped off the victory with three runs in the ninth, Gilberto Celestino driving in two of them while pinch-hitting for Correa.
"There was a lot of action. There were a lot of baserunners," Baldelli said, pointing out that the Twins were 10-for-17 with runners in scoring position. "That's what we're looking for, but we found a way to get them home."
The Twins piled up 14 hits and 10 walks on the day, though oddly did not hit a home run for the first time in six games as they opened their lead in the American League Central to 3 1⁄2 games.
In addition to Correa, the Twins were powered by Gary Sanchez, who drove in three runs with a double and a two-out bases-loaded bloop single into left field, snapping his streak of extra-base hits without a single at seven straight. Luis Arraez had three hits, two of them RBI doubles.
