The Magic Keeps on Building as Athletics Erase 3-Run Deficit in 9th to Beat Giants
There is, as Mark Canha puts it, “some magic going right now” with the A’s.
Canha’s three-run game-winning homer in the ninth inning Saturday in San Francisco was part of a four-run rally that sent the A’s to a 7-6 win over the Giants and to an American League-best 15-6 record.
There have been A’s seasons in the past where that rally might have been the most improbable of the Oakland season. This one wasn’t even the most improbable of the A’s weekend. On Friday, the A’s came from five runs down in the ninth, mostly on the strength of Stephen Piscotty’s grand slam, to force extra innings, eventually winning 8-7 in 10 innings.
“Well, it's not that easy, but we’ve got some magic going right now,” Canha, the A’s center fielder, said. “I really don’t know what to say.
“It’s kind of contagious. I think we go into that ninth inning that if we just put a few at-bats together and give ourselves a chance, we like our hitters’ approach. We like what we’re doing at the plate. It’s just never-say-die, and we know we’re never out of it.”
The A’s have hit six homers and scored 22 runs in the ninth inning this year – that’s 15 ninth innings, because in six Coliseum wins, there were no ninth innings for the A’s hitters. The homers and the runs scored are the most of any MLB team in the ninth inning this season.
A’s starter Sean Manaea, who had a rough fourth inning but lasted a season-best five innings, was in the stands for Friday night’s win and in the clubhouse for the culmination of Saturday’s. The lefty called them “two incredible nights.”
“We can do some scary things,” Manaea said. “No one believes we’re down until the last out.”
Along the way, they’re making history. On Friday, they came from five down in the ninth for the first time since 1952 when the Philadelphia A’s pinned a loss on the St. Louis Browns’ Satchel Paige.
By coming back from three down in the ninth on Saturday, the club has won back-to-back games after being three or more runs down after eight innings. In the previous half century-plus of Oakland baseball, the A’s had only done it twice in a season once – April 13 and Sept. 25, 2011. Now they’ve done it in less than a 24-hour span.
It’s possible that Giants’ closer Trevor Gott has had a worse weekend in baseball than this one, but it’s hard to imagine how, giving up four homers in the two games while blowing 5-run and 3-run leads in the ninth inning.
This time around, Sean Murphy led off the top of the ninth with a solo homer. Since it was a Matt Olson solo shot that started things off, déjà vu kicked in.
“It was nice to get that first once,” Canha said. “It was, here we go again. That was the kind of mantra going around the dugout. I was like, 'Alright boys, let’s do it again.’”
Tony Kemp doubled with one out, and with two out, Gott didn’t even pretend to challenge Olson after what had happened Friday. The semi-intentional walk brought up Canha, who took a pitch, swung through a pitch and fouled a pitch off. Now the A’s were down to their last strike.
Canha went to the plate with just one goal – ‘I was trying to go deep,” he said, “just hit a homer and let’s win the game.”
That goal didn’t change, even facing a 1-2 count against the Giants’ closer. Gott missed with his next two offerings, and on 3-2. Canha crushed one out to left-center as the Oakland dugout went inordinately nutso.
Almost as nutso as the weather, both of the first two games being played in sweltering heat. That might help to explain the 10 homers hit, five in each game – 3-2 in the Giants’ favor Friday and 4-1 for the A’s Saturday.
“I have never been in this ballpark, and seen the ball carry like it has, especially out to center and right and right center field,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Mark has good numbers (3-for-4 with a walk in five plate trips against Gott). Everybody felt good about the math.”
And the result.
The game wasn’t a completely happy one for the A’s. Burch Smith, the right-handed reliever who has filled in well in the back of the bullpen, came out of the game with a right forearm strain. He’ll have an MRI on Monday, but the A’s will replace him on the roster Sunday because they know he’s headed for the injured list.
“It’s too bad,” Melvin said. “He’s just been so good for us, and you know he’s had some injuries in the past. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that this is just a bump in the road.”
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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