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Twins-Athletics Preview

Jun 4, 2010 - 5:50 AM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Minnesota (31-22) at Oakland (28-26), 10:05 p.m. EDT

The Oakland Athletics are happy to be returning home, but they probably aren't happy to see the pitcher they'll face Friday night.

The Athletics will try to defeat Minnesota Twins starter Scott Baker for the first time in five tries when the teams begin a weekend series.

Oakland (29-26) has homered a major league-low 12 times at home, where it is 18-9 to tie for the second-best mark in the AL. The Athletics have managed to be successful thanks to a major league-best 2.79 ERA at home.

"Our game is more suited for our ballpark," manager Bob Geren said. "We pitch well, we run the bases well, spray our hits around. We do timely, situational hitting. We're not a real big home run team."

Geren was speaking after his club homered a season-high four times in a 9-8 win at Boston on Thursday. Kurt Suzuki went deep twice and Jack Cust and Kevin Kouzmanoff also homered.

It will be difficult for Oakland to hit one out Friday against Baker (5-4, 4.48 ERA), who's never allowed a homer to the Athletics. He's 4-0 with a 3.24 ERA in four career starts, with three of those victories in Oakland.

Baker, however, has been vulnerable on the road this year, going 1-3 with a 5.86 ERA in five outings. The right-hander earned a 6-3 home victory over Texas on Sunday by allowing three runs over six innings.

His counterpart, Dallas Braden (4-5, 3.60), has turned in his best work this season at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Braden is 3-2 with a 2.14 ERA in six starts at home, where he threw a perfect game against Tampa Bay on May 9.

The left-hander hasn't won since that outing, going 0-3 with a 4.13 ERA. He gave up five runs over six innings Sunday in a 10-2 loss at Detroit.

Braden, who is 0-1 with a 2.81 ERA in four career starts against the Twins, continues to insist that a sprained left ankle that plagued him throughout May is not an issue.

"It's attached," he told the Athletics' official website. "That's the last thing that affected me."

Minnesota (31-23) is trying to avoid its first four-game losing streak since July 22-25. The Twins scored a total of three runs in dropping the final three games of their series in Seattle, falling 4-1 on Thursday.

No. 5 hitter Michael Cuddyer missed Thursday's game and will be placed on the bereavement list following the death of his father-in-law. Cuddyer, third on the team with 29 RBIs, will miss this entire series.

Danny Valencia was called up from Triple-A Rochester and went 1 for 3 in his major league debut. Manager Ron Gardenhire said that the right-handed third baseman will start Friday with the southpaw Braden pitching.

Oakland right fielder Ryan Sweeney, batting a team-high .309, left Thursday's game after colliding with second baseman Mark Ellis.

"He was a little disoriented, a little dizzy, so as a precaution he was removed from the game," Geren said.

The A's went 6-4 against the Twins in 2009.