“It’s helpful. It definitely helps guys [gain] some confidence,” Rocco Baldelli said. “It helps guys trust that just having good at-bats leads to positive things. Just keep having good at-bats on the offensive end, and good things will likely come.”

They certainly did Wednesday. Just five pitches into his first career start, opener Justin Sterner left a two-strike fastball at the top of the strike zone and in the middle of the plate. Exactly where Ryan Jeffers likes it.

His swing propelled the baseball over the A’s clubhouse in left-center field, a 414-foot blast that gave Jeffers four homers on the season, each of them on the road.

In the fifth, facing Jeffrey Springs, normally an A’s starter, Royce Lewis led off with a sharp single to left. Bader missed a couple of changeups, but on a 2-2 count, he blasted a slider 391 feet for his sixth homer this year.

Twins starter Zebby Matthews gave up one run in five innings Wednesday night and earned the win. (Sergio Estrada/The Associated Press)

As they have in each of the first two games here, the Twins kept adding on in the late innings. In the eighth, Jeffers drew a one-out walk, then went to third base on Trevor Larnach’s single. But he was waved home when the ball popped out of center fielder Denzel Clarke’s glove and hit his foot, kicking backward several feet for an error.

Two batters later, pinch-runner Kody Clemens scored on Willi Castro’s single, giving the Twins a 5-1 lead.