Shea Langeliers will be the center of attention once again when the Athletics go for a three-game sweep over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday afternoon in Minneapolis.

Langeliers has homered in each of the first two games of the series and in three consecutive games overall. He has 28 homers on the season, and 16 of those have come in 30 games since the All-Star break.

“Shea’s at-bats have been great,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. “Even when he makes outs, they’re loud. It’s been fun to watch, for sure.”

The Athletics are having fun on the field, too. They have won four of their past five games and are 16-8 since July 24.

It is hard to imagine the Athletics having so much success without Langeliers leading the way at the plate. His latest heroics came Wednesday night, when he hit a go-ahead, two-run homer in the 10th inning to help the Athletics secure a 4-2 victory.

Kotsay thought Langeliers would do something big in that moment.

“I wouldn’t say (I was) surprised,” Kotsay said. “But that type of hit in that situation, you’re not really thinking about a homer. But I was pretty confident he was going to take a good at-bat. He’s been swinging the bat really good against lefties.”

The Twins will try to avoid a sweep in what has been a brutal stretch at home.

Minnesota is 1-5 with one matchup remaining on its seven-game homestand. The Twins dropped three of four games against the Detroit Tigers before losing the first two contests against the Athletics.

Twins manager Rocco Baldelli said he still spotted reasons for optimism in the team’s latest setback.

“We gave ourselves chances,” Baldelli said. “We had chances the whole game. Did a pretty good job of having good at-bats. Had some good swings. …

“Today was just one of the days where we were not able to get that (clutch) hit.”

On Thursday, the Twins will turn to right-hander Jose Urena (0-0, 4.06 ERA) to try to escape a home sweep. It will be Urena’s fifth start of the season and his third since joining Minnesota. He has pitched for four teams this year: the New York Mets, Toronto Blue Jays, Los Angeles Dodgers and Minnesota.

The 33-year-old veteran has faced the Athletics eight times in his career, four starts and four relief appearances, going 3-1 with a 3.74 ERA in those outings. He tossed two shutout innings vs. the A’s in a relief outing for the Blue Jays on May 29.

The Athletics will counter with right-hander Jack Perkins (2-2, 4.28 ERA), who is set to make the fourth start of his rookie campaign. He will go for his third victory in a row after earning wins against the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Angels in his past two starts.

Perkins has not faced the Twins in his brief career. He is 1-1 with a 2.08 ERA in five games (one starts) on the road, compared to 1-1 with a 6.61 ERA in six games (two starts) at home.

The Twins remain without Opening Day starter Pablo Lopez, but the veteran right-hander will make a big step toward returning from injury when he starts Thursday for Triple-A Saint Paul. Lopez has been out since June 3 because of a right shoulder injury.

–Field Level Media