If you were wondering what the Oakland As could do on Wednesday to increase the excitement of yesterday’s double exclusion, you got the answer.
The A’s took their win to 11 with a win over the Minnesota Twins to complete a whip in their series at the Coliseum, but that doesn’t even describe what we just watched. The two clubs bumped into each other’s yardsticks for more than four hours, in a 10-innings thriller that featured several head changes and seven homers, resulting in a final score of 13-12.
Come on in, it might take a while to explain.
*** Game Thread # 1 | Game Thread # 2 | Pin # 3 ***
After the quiet final of 1-0 last night, both teams came out swinging this afternoon, and they each had answers for everything they threw at each other. Through five innings, they hit three homers, they both hit a run on a wild field, and the score was tied at 7-7, with both starters long gone.
From there, the twins won in the top of the sixth for another three, and the A’s returned in the bottom half. Oakland’s response rally fell short, but they got it back in the ninth time to force extras.
On the 10th inning, both of the team’s shutters ran out for a second work frame and protected them from the automatic runner on second base, and it didn’t go well for either of the whores. The A’s allowed a two-way homer, and then the twins cut even harder, walked the loaded bases and then committed two errors on routine, potential terminations to hand the game over effectively to Oakland. The Green-and-Gold did not even score a hit in their win-three undeserved run, but it counts the same.
Act 1: Early fireworks
The first five innings took care of the mood. It was not a pitcher duel between the two Frankie Montas and Cy Young runner-up Kenta Maeda. It would be a slug festival, and it might not even be over at the last pitch.
In the 1st, Josh Donaldson homer for an early lead, a 1-0 advantage that now looks retrospective. In the 2nd, Matt Olson pas by him.
Then the A’s raised the bid. Two runners came on board, Elvis Andrus beat one house with a sharp ankle in the middle, and Ramon Laureano recorded at a wild pitch to make it 3-1.
Minnesota responded in the 3rd, with an RBI single from Donaldson and a two-run dinger by Nelson Cruz to make it 4-3. But the A’s loaded right at the back of the innings, with a doubling Jed Lowrie and a two-run dinger by Olson.
Seth Brown followed by another two-run long ball to make it 7-4.
But Minnesota did not want to concede. In fifth place, Cruz has homer again, his second on the day, just like Olson. JB Wendelken opened a wild pitch to make another one run home, just like Maeda did earlier. And then something new happened, because the A’s got the foundation they needed to finish the innings with the lead intact, but Lowrie, the second fullback, knocked it off for an undeserved run to level the score. . The twins had not done so yet, but looking ahead they would later.
After a full day’s action we were only five innings through and nothing was decided. It was 7-7 who entered the 6th.
Act 2: emerging clutch
The match did not last long. The twins were not deceived by Sergio Romo’s slides, offering a variety of hard and soft contact, resulting in four hits and three runs. Oakland was right in a hole.
Then they mostly climbed down to the bottom in the sixth. Between some ground plans and stolen bases, the As have runners to second and third, Mark Canha and Andrus respectively. The ‘single’ from Canha was particularly happy, as luck did not make Donaldson smile on his return to his old Coliseum corner.
With twice on the board, the twins brought in a left-hander to turn Lowrie to the right of the plate. The problem with the plan is that Lowrie could be an even better right-hander than he is on the left, and he showed this by drilling a liner into the gap right in the middle. It was his second double of the game, one out of every bat’s box.
Olson came next and almost completed the return. He has the first pitch of 107.8 km / h in the left-middle gap, but the former Platinum Glove winner Byron Buxton made an excellent dive to rob it and end the innings, and beach the prospective runaway.
Can you imagine if the score held 10-9 and that the catch was the difference in the match? You need to tilt your cap.
Buxton blocked the extra point
– Melissa Lockard (@melissalockard) 21 April 2021
But it was far from over. The A’s gave up their time until the 9th and then struck. Laureano reached his base when a pitch barely cut his briefcase jersey, which was enough to spark another rally. Olson picked directly through the inning, such an explosion that it did not matter what defenders could stand in the way. The exit speed was 110.7 mph, its fourth time more than 100 today and the sharpest one yet.
With one on the board, everyone Matt Chapman all I had to do was make contact, anything but a strikeout, popout or double play. He hammered almost to the right along the line, but it landed a few feet, maybe centimeters. Then he did the work, with a liner to the left that was very deep to bring Laureano home. Tie game, and finally extra turns.
Act 3: The 10th innings
It amounts to a battle of shutters. Neither came in fresh, and both had to struggle on the second base with the new automatic runner.
For Oakland, that meant Lou Trivino. He went Tuesday night and already competed in the 9th game and threw 25 spots to get through the frame. He waved his first batsman in the 10th, but then Buxton struck again, this time with his bat. It was a sample of 423 feet, and at 111.0 mph the exit speed was the hardest ball in a match with 21 pieces of three-digit contact.
Trivino got the following batter, and Deolis Guerra came in to retire another, but the damage was done. The A’s needed a return for the fourth time today.
They will have to do it against a twin Alex Colome, but hey, they got him once today. Colome also entered in the ninth, when his team was 10-9, saving the chance. Can Oakland make a comeback a few minutes later?
It did not start well. The first batter flies out, and the next strikes out. Until their final chance.
But then Brown stepped out. And then Andrus walks, and suddenly the pedestals are loaded, with the top of the order coming up in Canha.
For the first nine innings of this game, the twins Donaldson had the third base and Luis Arraez at second. But in the 10th, they presented Donaldson as their author, and instead pinched him with Travis Blankenhorn. The move made sense at the time, but it ultimately did not help, as Blankenhorn ran home on a dancer anyway, which made speed irrelevant. And then it went ugly wrong.
Canha swings to his second pitch and hits a dribble to second. After sitting on the couch for four hours watching this chaos unfold, Blankenhorn was suddenly in the middle of it, and he captured the routine foundation. It could have ended the game right there, but everyone was safe and a run was home. It was 12-11, still bases loaded.
Laureano came on. He knocked down five spots and then, on Colome’s 49th presentation of the day, Laureano struck out a routine third. But instead of former Fielding Bible winner Donaldson, the position is now manned by Arraez, who has taken nine innings on the other side of the diamond. He sent the throw over the head of the first baseman, all the way to the backstop.
Laureano was safe, scoring two runs and the A’s victory from the mouth of the defeat with an incredible victory. Laureano’s founder seems to be a game indeed, just not for the team it should have been.
That last throw really had arraez
– Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) 22 April 2021
The play-by-play for the turn: fly-out, strike, run, mistake, mistake. Zero hits. Three runs. One victory.
After the fifth game of the season, a fifth consecutive defeat, I begin my summary by asking, “What can you really say now?” I now ask the same question, but with the opposite meaning, after 11 consecutive victories, including this immediate classic.
Because what more can you really say? This club is absolutely enchanted above and beyond its unmistakable talent, and we should enjoy this race just as long as it lasts. Even if one part of their roster has an outside day, they have enough to make up for it, and they are already reinstating the skills for comebacks we’ve seen over the past few years. At least they have ended any doubt that they are here to challenge this season.
They will cool down and even end up losing a game, but until then, do not try to explain it. Just ride the wave.