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MLB: Oakland 8, Minnesota 6

OAKLAND, Calif., Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Coco Crisp hit a two-run home run in the eighth inning that lifted the Oakland Athletics to an 8-6 win over the Minnesota Twins.

The win lowered Oakland's magic number for locking up the American League West title to four.

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With the score tied 6-6, Daric Barton walked off Minnesota reliever Shairon Martis to open the Oakland eighth. Martis struck out Alberto Callaspo but Crisp followed with a high drive into the right-field seats.

It was his 21st home run of the season and 11th in his last 27 games.

It was also the only hit Martis (0-1) allowed over 1 2/3 innings of relief.

Sean Doolittle (5-5), who stopped a Minnesota rally in the eighth, collected the win. He didn't allow a base runner over 1 1/3 innings of relief.

Oakland built a 6-3 lead with a four-run sixth in which Callaspo hit a pinch-hit solo home run and Jed Lowrie connected for a three-run homer. But Minnesota came back with an Oswaldo Arcia home run in the seventh and RBIs by Chris Herrmann and Brian Dozier in the eighth to tie the score.

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Minnesota opened the scoring with Chris Parmelee scoring in a fielder's choice in the third. Josh Reddick doubled in Brandon Moss and scored on a Stephen Vogt sacrifice fly to put the A's ahead 2-1 in the fourth. Josmil Pinto and Pedro Florimon had run-scoring singles for the Twins in the sixth that left the score 3-2 Minnesota.

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