Holliday Leads Record Comeback

OAKLAND -- Matt Holliday provided A's fans with a memorable evening on what may have been one of his final days with the team.

Holliday hit a seventh-inning grand slam, his second homer of the night, to help the A's overcome a 10-run deficit and beat the Twins 14-13 on Monday night at the Coliseum. It was the largest deficit overcome for a victory in Oakland history. The A's trailed 12-2 in the third and 13-7 in the seventh.

"I don't think I've seen a game as crazy as that one," said A's reliever Michael Wuertz, who recorded the final out of the game on an apparent blown call at the plate. "After that last out was made, I was thinking 'I don't know what just happened.'"

There were plenty of offensive stars on both teams, obviously, including Twins first baseman Justin Morneau, who hit a grand slam and a three-run homer. The biggest star was Holliday, though. He had four hits, including a two-run homer and two doubles before his game-tying grand slam in the seventh.

It became Holliday's best moment of an otherwise disappointing season wearing an A's uniform. He's struggled so much that trade talk has been fairly quiet around him, even though the A's have had him on the market. After this, GM Billy Beane may start getting a few more phone calls.

"He's locked in right now," said A's DH Jack Cust, whose solo homer after Holliday's grand slam gave the A's the lead. "I don't know what he did over the break, but he's really looked good."

Holliday is now hitting .338 over his past 20 games, with three homers in his past five games. He is going so good that manager Bob Geren said there was a feeling of confidence in the dugout when Holliday came to the plate.

They had sliced the lead to 13-9 on Orlando Cabrera's bloop double. Scott Hairston then walked to load the bases. Holliday hammered a homer to right-center against Bobby Keppel, tying the game. Cust's homer on the next pitch, from Jose Mijares, gave the A's a lead.

The wild night ended when Michael Cuddyer tried to score from second base on a wild pitch. He was nailed at the plate, with pitcher Wuertz slapping a tag on him. Replays indicated that Cuddyer was safe.

"Definitely Cuddy was safe," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "There's no doubt about it. We just had little bit of a bad call there. but we also shot ourselves in the foot enough out there pitching-wise, so it's hard to say [umpire Mike Muchlinski] blew it, because we did enough blowing it ourselves."

For the Twins, it equaled their largest blown lead in franchise history. They blew a 10-0 lead on Sept. 28, 1984 at Cleveland.