Oakland A Game # 19: A’s ride the wave with extra-inning 13-12 walk-off win on 10-inning errors

If you were wondering what Oakland A’s could do on Wednesday to overcome the excitement of yesterday’s double-headed closing hierarchy, you’ve got your answer.

The A’s won the series by 11 wins, with a victory over the Minnesota Twins to complete a series in their Coliseum series, but that doesn’t even begin to describe what I just watched. The two clubs clashed with each other’s pitching teams for more than four hours in a 10-round thriller that featured several lead changes and seven homers and resulted in a final score of 13- 12, which ended with a two-round error.

Settle down, it might take some time to explain.

*** Game topic # 1 | Game topic # 2 | Game topic # 3 ***

After last night’s quiet 1-0 final, both teams came out swinging this afternoon and each received answers for everything they threw at each other. In five innings, they scored three homers each piece, they both scored a run on a wild field, and the counter was tied 7-7, with both starting players long gone.

From there, the Geminis gathered three more in the top 6, and the A’s returned in the bottom half. Oakland’s response rally dropped, but they recovered it in 9 to force the draw.

The 10th half saw both closing teams come out for a second frame of work, protecting themselves against the automatic runner on the second base and it didn’t go well for either of them. A allowed a two-stage homer, and then the Gemini blinked even louder, going on loaded bases and then committing two errors to routines, potential pitches to complete the game, to give the game effectively to Oakland. Green and gold have not even managed to succeed in their undefeated three-round winning rally, but it still matters.

Act 1: Early Fireworks

The first five innings created the mood. This was not going to be a pitcher duel between Frankie Montas and Cy Young runner-up Kenta Maeda. It was going to be a slugfest and it might not end until the last pitch.

In the first, Josh Donaldson managed to get an early lead, a 1-0 advantage, which now seems strange in retrospect. In the second, Matt Olson matched with it.

Then A raised the offer. Two runners got on board, Elvis Andrus knocked a house with a single sharp in the middle and Ramon Laureano scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-1.

Minnesota responded in 3rd, with an RBI single from Donaldson and a two-run dinger Nelson Cruz to make it 4-3. But A loaded back at the bottom of the half with a double Jed Lowrie and a dinger with two Olson runs.

Seth Brown followed with another two-run long ball to make it 7-4.

But Minnesota wouldn’t give up. At the head of the 5th, Cruz again made a homer, second that day, just like Olson. JB Wendelken he cleared a wild field to let another run home, as Maeda had done earlier. And then something new happened, as the A’s got the ground they needed to end the half with the lead intact, but second baseman Lowrie hit him for an undefeated run to tie the score. The twins hadn’t done that yet, but, foreshadowing, they would later.

After a full day of action, I only went through five rounds and nothing was decided. It was 7-7 going into 6.

Act 2: Clutch coupling

The game didn’t stay tied for long. The twins were not fooled Of Sergio Romo sliding, providing a series of hard, soft contacts that led to four shots and three runs. Oakland turned right into a hole.

Then they climbed right back to the bottom of the 6th, especially. Between some stolen lands and bases, You would take the runners on the second and the third, Mark Canha and Andrus, respectively. Canha’s “only” one was particularly lucky, as luck did not smile on Donaldson when he returned to his old hot corner.

With two exits on the board, the twins brought in a left-hand reliever to turn Lowrie to the right of the board. The problem with this plan is that Lowrie could be an even better player on the right than he on the left and showed him drilling a liner in the center-right goal for a double. It was his second double of the game, one from each batter’s box.

Olson then came and almost completed the return. He hit the first 107.8 mph pitch in the center-left gap, but the former Platinum Glove winner Byron Buxton he made an excellent dive catch to rob her and end the half, wandering the tying race.

Can you imagine if the 10-9 score was maintained and that catch was the difference in the game? You should tip the lid.

But this was far from over. The A’s gave themselves time until the 9th, then jumped. Laureano reached the base when a pitch barely cut his wide shirt, which was enough to trigger another rally. Olson’s players now seemed to think the job was done and acted more defensively, just waiting for the ref to blow the final whistle. The exit speed was 110.7 mph, the fourth time over 100 today and the strongest so far.

With one on the board, all of them Matt Chapman we had to make a contact, anything but a strikeout, a popout or a double game. He almost went down the line to the right, but landed a few meters wrong, maybe inches. Then he did his job, with a lining on the left, which was deep enough to bring Laureano home. Draw game and, finally, extra innings.

Act 3: 10th half

There was a battle of locks. Neither of them came in fresh and they both had to fight the new automatic runner on the second base.

That meant it to Oakland Lou Trivino. He pitched on Tuesday night and has already entered this game in the 9th and threw 25 pitches to get through that frame. He ventilated his first batter in the 10th, but then Buxton hit again, this time with his bat. It was a 423-foot monster shot and, at an exit speed of 111.0 mph, was the most hit ball in a game that featured 21 three-digit contacts.

Trivino received the next beater and The Deolis War another came to withdraw, but the harm had been done. Need a comeback for the fourth time today.

He should do it against the Twins closer Alex Colome, but hey, they’d already received it once. Colome had also entered the 9th, when his team was 10-9, and threw a chance to save. Could Oakland repeat a few minutes later?

It didn’t start well. The first beater flew, and the next came out. Until their last chance.

But then Brown went. And then Andrus went, and suddenly the bases were loaded, with the top of the order coming to Canha.

For the first nine innings of this game, the twins made Donaldson play third base and Luis Arraez to the second. But in the 10th, Donaldson lined up as a self-runner and instead ran with him Travis Blankenhorn. The move made sense at the time, but it didn’t help since Blankenhorn entered a dinger’s home anyway, making the speed irrelevant. And then it went awful.

Canha threw in the second step and hit a dribble in the second. After sitting on the bench for four hours, watching the chaos unfold, Blankenhorn suddenly found himself in the middle of it and made a routine noise. He could have ended the game right there, but everyone was safe and a run was home. It was 12-11, the bases still loaded.

Laureano came upstairs. He failed on five pitches, and then, on the 49th offer of Colome’s day, Laureano hit a routine grounder on the third. But instead of former Fielding Bible winner Donaldson, the position was now led by Arraez, fresh in nine innings on the other side of the diamond. He sent by airmail the throw over the head of the first base, to the bottom.

Laureano was safe, scored two runs, and A’s victory came from the jaws of defeat with an incredible victory on the ride. Laureano’s field really turned out to be a player, not just for the team he should have been.

The game of the half: flyout, strikeout, walk, error, error. Zero hits. Three runs. One victory.

After the fifth game of the season, a fifth straight loss at the opening, I began my recap by asking myself, “What can you really say right now?” Now I ask the same question, but with the opposite connotation, after 11 consecutive victories, including this classic instant.

Because what else can you really say? This club is absolutely enchanted right now, in addition to its undeniable talent and we should simply enjoy this race as long as it lasts. Even when part of their list has a day off, they have enough to make up for it and are already restoring the ability to come back that we have seen in recent years. At least they’ve cleared up any doubt I’m here to fight this season.

They will cool down and even lose a game in the end, but until then, don’t try to explain it. Just riding the wave.