A fire on Yerba Buena Island snarled Bay Bridge traffic, and after awhile, the bus driver advised him to take Bay Area Rapid Transit. But because of the fire, the trains were jammed, "the electricity was out, there wasn't any air conditioning, and people were sweating," Blackburn said. "Finally got here (around 5:15), and the doors wouldn't open for about two minutes."

He didn't fare much better on the mound. He pitched well, perhaps as well as he has all month, but "I feel like I made only three or four mistakes, and every time I did, it turned out to be a big hit," he said. "It's very frustrating."

Especially his final batter. Daric Barton came to the plate with Bobby Crosby on second and two outs in a 1-1 game, and reached for a breaking ball. "He dove out, hit it off the end of his bat, broke his bat," Blackburn said. "It wasn't a bad pitch."

But Barton lifted a soft line drive toward left field, a ball just beyond shortstop Nick Punto's reach. Crosby scored, and Blackburn looked furious with himself, even yelled a couple of curses, as he handed the ball over to manager Ron Gardenhire.

ATHLETICS 3, TWINS 2: For the third consecutive appearance, Jesse Crain allowed a critical run, this time on a ninth-inning double to Oakland's Kurt Suzuki that scored Ryan Sweeney with the winning run.

Nick Blackburn allowed two runs but for the third time in four starts, failed to last six innings. Nick Punto drove in a run with a seventh-inning single, but the Twins hit into four double plays and lost for the fifth time in six games to fall 1 1/2 games behind Chicago in the AL Central.