The Athletics have lost another series following tonight's loss against the Minnesota Twins. With this loss, the team has now lost 20 out of their last 21 games, and they now hold a record of 23-40, having lost nine straight games.

For back-to-back games now, the A's have elected to go with an opener. Last night, the A's went with Grant Holman to open the game, and tonight, they went with Justin Sterner. Both relievers have been solid for the A's this season, but have been struggling recently, which has been a large part of the reason the A's have struggled to win multiple games over the past three weeks.

Unlike Holman's strong inning yesterday, Sterner wasn't able to keep the Twins off the board in the first inning. Twins' designated hitter Ryan Jeffers took Sterner deep to give them an early 1-0 lead in the first.

The A's would turn to Jeffrey Springs to be the bulk reliever. The lefty has had his struggles in the first inning of his starts, so allowing him to enter the game against the middle-to-late part of the lineup seemed like a good idea. And for awhile, it worked.

After holding the Twins scoreless for three innings, Minnesota finally got to him in the fifth. Harrison Bader would hit his sixth long ball of the season off Springs, adding two more to the Twins' tally, giving them a 3-0 lead.

The A's would respond in the bottom of the fifth, as Jacob Wilson would bloop one into right field for an RBI double that would score Lawrence Butler. However, this would be the last time the A's lineup would score tonight.

Springs would begin the eighth inning, only allowing the pair of runs from the Bader homer. He was doing well, but then Trevor Larnach would record an RBI single to score Ryan Jeffers to extend their lead to 4-1, which would cause the A's to turn to Hogan Harris. Shortly after, Willi Castro would join the fun with an RBI single of his own, which seemingly put the game out of reach at 5-1.

Overall, Springs' start was pretty solid. The left-hander did a good job of getting weak contact, and punched out seven Twins hitters. That was the most strikeouts he's had in a single game since March 28 in Seattle.

Hogan Harris would go out in the ninth inning, and he allowed yet another RBI single, which would give Minnesota a five-run lead over the A's. The Twins would hand the ball off to star closer Jhoan Duran in the bottom of the ninth, and he put the A's down in order, striking out JJ Bleday and Max Muncy.

The A's offense has been pretty solid recently, but today, the A's offense struggled to get runs on the board. One of the big factors in the offensive struggle tonight was that they struck out 14 times. Five of the nine A's hitters had multi-strikeout days, and everyone struck out at least once except for Luis Urias.

Tomorrow the A's will be facing Bailey Ober with the hope of getting the offense back on track. The A's are going to roll with Mitch Spence as their starter against the Twins in the series finale. The right-hander started 24 games for the team last season and has yet to make a start this year, with all of his 22 appearances coming out of the bullpen.