Manaea strikes out 8 as A’s sweep Twins

OAKLAND — Danny Valencia went 3-for-4 and Sean Manaea struck out a career-high eight batters as the A’s swept the Twins in a 5-1 win on Wednesday at the Coliseum, extending their winning streak to five games.

Oakland roughed up Twins starter Pat Dean, who allowed four runs on nine hits in five innings. Valencia had three of those hits, including two doubles, concluding a white-hot series that pushed his season average to .346. Billy Burns and Billy Butler added RBI singles, Jake Smolinski hit his first home run of the season in the fourth, and Coco Crisp tacked on an RBI single in the sixth.

Minnesota pushed a run across in the sixth on a sacrifice fly from Eduardo Escobar, but the Twins stranded two baserunners to end the inning.

Oakland’s winning streak comes after it had lost three straight and seven of its previous eight games, falling to a season-low nine games below .500.

MOMENTS THAT MATTEREDManaea mows ’em down: The rookie southpaw looked a bit unsteady early, allowing five runners to reach base over the first three innings. But he recovered, at one point retiring eight straight between the third and fifth, before running into trouble in the sixth. …

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