The Twins held a party on Friday, hosting 35,631 of their closest friends, wearing their new threads and treating everyone to a postgame Flo Rida concert. And while a group of party crashers tried their best to break up the fun, they were ultimately unsuccessful in their bid.

In front of the largest crowd of the season, on the day the Twins debuted their long-awaited City Connect uniforms, Minnesota stormed back twice to beat the Oakland Athletics 6-5 in 10 innings at Target Field.

Max Kepler played hero with a walk-off single in the 10th inning after a long home run earlier tied the game. His late heroics came after an error, hit-by-pitch — Kepler was hit flush in the elbow — and a pair of walks forced in a run to tie the game in the eighth.

The Twins were unable to get more out of their bases-loaded opportunity against flame-throwing closer Mason Miller, sending to the game to the ninth tied. But the Twins’ own hard-throwing closer, Jhoan Duran, threw two scoreless innings in the ninth and 10th to keep the Twins’ hopes alive and allow them to prevail.

The dramatic ending came on a night that started inauspiciously for the Twins when Simeon Woods Richardson issued walks to the first two batters he faced.

Both would haunt.

Before he got out of a 37-pitch first inning, Woods Richardson served up a grand slam to Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers, putting the Twins in a deep hole early.

The Twins eventually climbed out of it, using a Byron Buxton RBI triple in the second inning and Kepler three-run homer in the sixth to do so. The home run was the 81st of Kepler’s career at Target Field, making him the new record holder at the ballpark, which opened in 2010.

It also rejuvenated the crowd, which had been yearning for something to cheer for. But the game wasn’t tied for long.

On a night where Twins pitchers walked six hitters, a one-out free pass to JJ Bleday came back to bite the Twins. Former Twin Brent Rooker’s triple off the wall in center field brought home Bleday, giving Oakland back the lead.

That held until the Twins took advantage of the free bases Lucas Erceg gave them in the eighth.

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St. Paul broke away early with eight runs in the first two innings, then rode the strong pitching of David Festa to beat the Louisville Bats 9-5 Friday night in an International League game at Louisville Slugger Field.

Festa tied a franchise record with 10 strikeouts, the third time this season he has reached that mark. He limited the Bats to two runs over his six innings.

The Saints struck out 16 on the night, the second time they’ve fanned that many this season. Both have come against the Bats.

Seven Saints recorded two hits each, including Edouard Julien, Brooks Lee, Matt Wallner and Jair Camargo, who led St. Paul with three runs batted in.

The teams meet again tonight in the fifth game of their six-game series.

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Napheesa Collier finished with 30 points and a career-high eight steals, and Courtney Williams added 15 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds as the Minnesota Lynx overcame a slow start to continue their dominance of the Los Angeles Sparks, winning 81-76 on Friday night at Target Center.

The Lynx (10-3) have now won 12 of the past 13 meetings between the two teams.

It didn’t come easy. Minnesota led 77-67 with 3:05 to play before Los Angeles cut the Lynx lead to just three on a jumper by Rickea Jackson with 10 seconds remaining. But Collier hit a pair of free throws and Minnesota held on, winning its third-straight game and its sixth in the past seven.

But things did not start smoothly for Minnesota, which started the game 3 of 9 from the field as Los Angeles (4-9) embarked on an 11-2 run to take an early 14-7 lead. The Sparks expanded that margin to 25-14 at the end of the first quarter, thanks to six points each from Dearica Hamby and Jackson.

Minnesota finished the first quarter 6 of 15 (40%) from the field. Los Angeles was just 7 of 16 (43.8%), but was 9 of 10 at the free-throw line. The Lynx went to the line just once.

The second quarter did not start much better as the Lynx fell behind by as much as 12. But Collier caught fire late, scoring nine of her team’s 11 points on an 11-2 run that cut the gap to three before a layup by Hamby gave the Sparks a 44-39 halftime lead.

Collier finished the first half with 17 points to lead all scorers and added six steals, but her team — which entered play leading the WNBA in 3-point shooting — was just 3 of 10 from beyond the arc.

Minnesota, though, continued to ride the momentum coming out of the half — outscoring the Sparks 18-4 — including a pair of 3-pointers by Bridget Carleton and six points from Alanna Smith over the bulk of the third to lead by as much as seven.

Los Angeles scored six of the quarter’s final eight points, cutting the Lynx lead to 59-56 entering the fourth.

Smith finished with 12 points and seven rebounds for Minnesota. Carleton added 11 points to the winning cause.

The Lynx finished the night 15 of 18 at the free-throw line, matching the Sparks exactly.