Twins win in 10th on 3-base error

Shannon Stewart kept his eye on the ball while Bobby Crosby lost sight of it.

Stewart scored from first base when Crosby dropped a fly ball in the 10th inning Saturday in Oakland, Calif., lifting the Minnesota Twins over the Oakland Athletics 3-2.

Stewart beat out an infield single against Jim Mecir (0-3) with one out. Cristian Guzman flied out, and Stewart ran on an 0-1 pitch to Doug Mientkiewicz, who hit a soft fly to shallow left field. Crosby jogged to make the catch, and the ball bounded off his glove into the bullpen area for an error.

"I thought it was going to drop in, anyway. It was right in a good spot," Stewart said. "I saw (Eric) Chavez and I saw the shortstop. I looked at third and didn't see the pitcher, so I kept on running. I saw the ball roll away, and I was going. It was a good bounce for us."

Mientkiewicz wound up on second. After an intentional walk to Corey Koskie, pinch-hitter Mike Ryan struck out.

"I make that play 99 out of a 100 times," Crosby said. "It was going away from me, and I put my glove up. The ball was shaded a little bit by my glove. I shouldn't have put it up so soon. It ticked off the tip. I'm never going to make an excuse for something like that. I should have made the play."

J.C. Romero (1-2) pitched 2 2/3 innings, helping the Twins win in their third extra-inning game in five days. Joe Nathan struck out the side in the 10th around a walk for his eighth save in nine chances.

"You never know what's going to happen in extra innings," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "We lost last night and lost in Seattle but we've won our share of these things over the years. They made a mistake, and we scored a run. You have to feel lucky when you face (Tim) Hudson. You don't get many opportunities."

Oakland has lost four of six and 10 of 14 overall, and nine of its last 10 against Minnesota. The A's left the bases loaded in the ninth when Romero threw a called third strike past Erubiel Durazo.

"We had a couple of opportunities," A's manager Ken Macha said. "We just didn't come through. Their bullpen is on a par with a lot of bullpens in the league."

Macha gave a short postgame pep talk to Crosby, whose batting average fell to .183 after an 0-for-4 day.

"We just talked about keeping his head up," Macha said. "All I want is for him to play solid defense, and he's done that."

Hudson allowed nine hits in nine innings. After giving up three hits in the fourth, he retired 15 of his next 17 batters.