Santana smooth but Twins edged by A’s

OAKLAND — A’s outfielder Coco Crisp belted a leadoff home run in support of starter Kendall Graveman, who held the Twins to two runs across six innings to pull out a 3-2 series-opening victory at Oakland Coliseum on Monday afternoon.

“Guys know what Coco’s all about and how he plays the game,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “It’s easy for me having a guy like that, who plays all-out, who plays hard all the time. For some of the new guys coming in, this is how we play. And when he’s healthy, he’s usually productive, and he definitely is right now.”

The A’s carried a one-run deficit into the bottom half of the fifth, when Marcus Semien hit a game-tying double to bring home Yonder Alonso, who led off with a base hit. Oakland took the lead for good in the next inning, as Jed Lowrie notched a leadoff single, advanced to third on Stephen Vogt’s double and scored on a sacrifice fly from Khris Davis.

Twins starter Ervin Santana was on the hook for all three runs, scattering seven hits in as many innings in the loss. Graveman, meanwhile, picked up just his second win and first since April 20, after yielding six hits and three walks with five strikeouts.

“There’s not much to complain about with the effort we got from [Santana],” Twins manager Paul Molitor said. “It was a good game but not a lot offensively for us. It was a little disappointing in that we liked the matchup headed in and how we’d been playing, but we didn’t swing the bats well today.”

MOMENTS THAT MATTERED Spark plug: Crisp wasn’t expected to carry an everyday role this season because of his injury-prone past, but on Monday the outfielder made his 15th consecutive start, matching his longest such streak over the last three years. Crisp celebrated the occasion with a leadoff home run, the 16th of his career. The veteran has …

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