Both clubs are dealing with thin rosters up and down the diamond. The Twins are without their ace and their right fielder, while Oakland is missing regulars behind the plate, at short, at third and across the outfield. That's a lot of replacement-level at-bats on both sides of a game the board still likes Minnesota to control.
Minnesota is sitting a half-game back of the final AL Wild Card spot, which is exactly why the front office bolstered the bullpen with Jeff Hoffman, A.J. Minter and Dean Kremer instead of selling. Every game against a rebuilding club like this one is a game the Twins need to simply take care of business, and they've already shown they can do it against this specific Oakland roster.
Oakland, meanwhile, is playing out a lost season in Sacramento with most of its trade-deadline conversations centered on who they'd keep, not who they'd sell, because there wasn't much to move. That's the shape of this one: a team scrapping for October against a club just trying to get through August.