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 and Max Kepler played hero to beat the Oakland Athletics 6-5 in 10 innings at Target Field.

“I was thinking about bunting,” Kepler, who got hit flush by a 99 mile per hour pitch in the eighth inning, said. “Then one of my hitting coaches (Derek Shomon) said, ‘Screw that. Swing the bat. You rake.’ I didn’t know how my swing was going to feel, but I just took a hack and that happened.”

The that that he referred to was a walk-off single off a lefty, Scott Alexander. It was the 10th walk-off plate appearance of his career, tying him for third most in Twins history with Kent Hrbek.

His late heroics came after an error, hit-by-pitch — “it got me good,” Kepler said — and a pair of walks forced in a run to tie the game in the eighth.

The Twins (38-32) were unable to get more out of their bases-loaded opportunity against flame-throwing closer Mason Miller in the eighth. But the their 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.

It was the first time he had thrown two innings in a game this season.

“He bucked up and did a really nice job,” manager Rocco Baldelli said.

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 (26-46) 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 was fun. Obviously it was a big hit in that situation, big momentum change,” Buxton said. “To be able to get a bit hit like that and turn the game around was big to getting us into the later innings.”

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.

And a couple innings later, Kepler came through in the big moments where he shines, once again, as the Twins gave their fans plenty to cheer about at their big bash.

“We know what we can do. We know what we’re capable of,” Kepler said. “I think if we can … keep present and not dwell on what happened or how many runs they put up and just focus on having quality at-bats and play quality defense and trust in one another, the sky’s the limit.”

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