It’s been a while, but the Pie-derman is back in Oakland!
Donaldson tied the game with a two run homer in the bottom of the ninth and Moss blasted a walk off, no doubt three run home run in the bottom of the 10th as the A’s beat the Mariners 7-4.
Manager Bob Melvin said this win was ”as dramatic as any of them.”
The A’s struggled to get anything early on as Mariners starter Jason Vargas once again dominated Athletics hitters. His final line would be seven innings, five hits, seven strike outs and one earned run.
The Mariners had control of this game for most of the day, leading off the scoring in the second. After the A’s had their first error-less game in seven chances last night, they managed to produce two errors on one play early in today’s game.
After a four pitch walk to lead off the top of the second, Smoak hit a ground ball right to Moss at first. Moss stepped on the bag and made an errant throw to second. The ball would wind up in left field where Cespedes grabbed it and tried to throw out Jaso who was heading to third. His throw would end up wide of third and end up in the A’s dugout.
And that is how a run scores from first on a ground ball to the first baseman.
The Mariners really got things going in the fourth when Seager and Saunders both hit home runs off Straily, pushing the Mariner lead to 4-0. Straily wasn’t sharp at all today, giving up four walks and four runs (three earned) in only four and 2/3 innings.
The one run the A’s scored against Vargas came in the bottom of the fourth when Cespedes managed to score from first on a single. With Moss up to bat and Cespedes on first, Cespedes took off on the pitch and Moss hit a ground ball single to right field. Cespedes was coming up to third when right
fielder Wells picked up the ball. Wells hesitated and Cespedes made a dash for home. It was a pure smart hustle play that is indicative of the kind of heart these A’s have been playing with all year.
Figueroa came in to relieve Straily with runners on first and third and one out. He got Seager to strike out on a fastball looking and got Jaso to swing and miss on a breaking ball. It was by far Figueroa’s biggest and most impressive sequence of pitches in his career.
The entire A’s bullpen pitched outstanding today. After Straily was pulled in the 5th, the bullpen went 5 2/3 scoreless innings allowing only two hits and no walks. Guys like Figueroa and Scribner who have taken a lot of heat this year stepped up big and kept the A’s in the game.
The A’s would finally mount a legitimate threat in the 8th. With Vargas safely out of the game. Coco singled and Drew walked, putting runners on 1st and
2nd. Cespedes popped out but Moss would come through with a big double to right. Coco scored easily but a good relay got Drew at the plate making the score 4-2 heading into the ninth inning and that is when things got interesting!
With one out in the bottom of the ninth, Reddick walked on four pitches bringing Josh Donaldson to the plate. Donaldson crushed a two run homer to dead center field tying the game.
Balfour pitched a perfect top of the tenth and in the bottom of the inning Crisp lead off with his fourth hit of the game. Cespedes would walk after a Drew line out.
Moss unloaded on the first pitch he saw, blasting a bomb to deep right. Cue the mob at home plate, cue the pie, cue the gatorade. Game over!
The A’s go for the sweep tomorrow with Tommy Millone (13-10, 3.74) matching up against Erasmo Ramirez (1-3, 3.42) at 1:05 PM.
Scoreboard Watch:
-The Angels and Rangers watched this one a monsoon in Texas. They are still in rain delay and may have to play a double header tomorrow.
-The A’s are 2.5 games back from Texas and 2.5 up on Anaheim.
-The Rays beat the White Sox 10-4, keeping pace with the Athletics but still three games back.
- The A’s magic number is down to 3!
Game Notes:
-This was the A’s major league leading 14th walk off of the year.
-Crisp is now 7-10 in his return from Pink Eye. Manager Bob Melvin on Crisp: “He has been unbelievable. We just feed off him.
