Arcia homers, racks up six RBIs in road finale

OAKLAND -- Oswaldo Arcia had a big day at the plate and learned a lesson on the basepaths.

The Twins rookie outfielder collected three hits, including a home run, and tied a Minnesota rookie record for RBIs in a game with six.

He shares the honor with Twins icon Tony Oliva, who drove in six against the Angels on May 7, 1964.

All that offense still proved insufficient as the Athletics put up big numbers of their own to win, 11-7, Sunday.

"It's a nice honor to be in the record book with Tony Oliva," Arcia said. "The most important thing is to win the baseball game. I'm happy with my at-bats, but I can't be 100 percent satisfied."

Shortly after the A's scored six runs, all with two outs, in the second, they clinched the AL West Division title when the Royals beat the Rangers, 4-0, on a 10th-inning grand slam in Kansas City.

The A's waited until after the game to pour out of the dugout and start the celebration, though.

"They're a fun team to watch and they get after it hard," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "They play the game the right way."

The Twins were swept in a four-game series in Oakland for the first time ever. The last time the A's swept the Twins in a four-game series was April 1981 in Minnesota -- four matinee matchups played in the snow to open the season.

The A's outscored Minnesota, 37-14, in this series.

Minnesota native Cole De Vries (0-1) lasted two innings in his first start of the season. He allowed six runs on four hits, walking three and striking out one.

"I wish I had an answer," De Vries said. "That's the first time it has ever happened to me. I was cruising along, feeling great, then all hell broke loose. It was awful."

De Vries retired the first five batters he faced but then walked three straight before giving up a two-run single, a three-run homer and an RBI double.

"I started missing by a little bit and then tried a little too hard and that didn't help," De Vries said. "It was a mixed bag. I couldn't get an out there to save my life. It's rough when it happens that quickly."

De Vries said he enjoyed the atmosphere of the Coliseum.

"It was awesome. I was loving it," De Vries said. "Even after I walked that third guy and the crowd was going crazy. I wanted to get that last out to shut them up. It didn't happen. I thought I made a great pitch [to Eric Sogard] and he hit it in no man's land."

Arcia gave the Twins a 1-0 lead with a single in the first. He added a three-run homer in the third and a two-run single in the ninth.

Brian Dozier, who had three hits on the day, singled home a run in the seventh. Alex Presley added two hits and scored twice.

Gardenhire was not happy with the way his team ran the bases. Pedro Florimon was doubled off first on a fly ball to Josh Reddick, who also caught Arcia rounding first on his ninth-inning single for the second out.

"We got hits and scored runs but that's all taken away with stuff like that. That can't happen," Gardenhire said. "I don't know where that came from. I don't understand it. Those are the things that drive you crazy. Some of our mistakes were Little League stuff, getting doubled up at first and thrown out rounding first. That's losing sight of the baseball game."

Arcia said he was expecting the first baseman to act as the cutoff for a possible throw to the plate.

"Crazy things happen in baseball," Arcia said. "I wanted to make a hard turn around first, thinking the first baseman would be the cutoff there. I never thought they would go backdoor. It was a good play on their part."

And a lesson learned for the 22-year-old Venezuelan.

"It's something in baseball that you can learn every day how to make adjustments," Arcia said. "I'll put that in the memory banks for the future."