IN SPORTS: GIANTS AND A’S WIN BIG
OAKLAND — After an anemic weekend in Denver, the A’s offense picked up where it left off in Texas last week, firing up the home grill in the first game of an extended run at Oakland Coliseum.
The A’s did their best to prove that their sweep at the hands of the Colorado Rockies was nothing more than a hiccup, more than doubling last weekend’s offensive output in a 10-1 win over the Toronto Blue Jays in Oakland on Monday.
With the win, the A’s moved to within five games of the first place Houston Astros in the American League West standings. They continue to trail the Seattle Mariners by two games for the second wild-card spot.
It only took four innings for the A’s to match the four runs they produced in three games against the Rockies over the weekend. Mark Canha cooked up the first ribeye by smacking his 14th home run of the season to left in the second.
Then, the A’s did what they so often failed to do in Denver: bring runners across the plate.
After stranding 29 runners in three games last weekend, the A’s made it 3-0 off sacrifice flies from Khris Davis and Jonathan Lucroy in the third and fourth. Then, Nick Martini continued his campaign to stay in the leadoff spot, scoring Marcus Semien off a double to right in the fourth.
Martini went 2 for 4 with a run and an RBI, improving his batting average to .435 (10 for 23) out of the leadoff position.
The A’s completed their offensive resurrection by adding six more runs in the frame now being referred to in the East Bay as the “Ath inning.” With a home run from Stephen Piscotty, a two-run double from Lucroy, a tworun double from Jed Lowrie and an RBI single from Davis, the A’s have now scored a MLB-best 83 runs in the eighth inning this season.
As the A’s bats returned to the form that produced 41 runs in four games against the Texas Rangers last week, the pitching staff put together an equally impressive performance on the hill.
In his 16th season, with his 13th Major League club, Edwin Jackson finally earned his 100th career win, tossing 5 2/3 innings of shutout baseball. Jackson, who’d been stuck on win No. 99 for exactly one calendar month, didn’t
allow a Blue Jays runner to advance past second base as he surrendered just three hits while walking three batters and striking out five.
The bullpen made sure that Jackson left the Coliseum as a 100-game winner, giving up just one run over the final
31/3 innings. Ryan Dull, who was recalled from Triple-A Nashville earlier in the day, recorded the last out of the sixth, inducing a ground out from shortstop Aledmys Diaz. Then, Lou Trivino and Jeurys Familia shut the door in the seventh and eighth. Ryan Buchter coughed up a home run to Diaz while finishing out the game in the ninth.
The win ensured that the A’s goal of bringing their stellar road play home to the Coliseum got off on the right foot. While they’re 35-24 on the road, the A’s are just 27-22 at home, where they’ll play 26 of their next 36 games.
Unfortunately, only 11,149 paid fans showed up to watch Monday’s blowout win. Manager Bob Melvin is hoping that things pick up as the
week progresses.
“Sometimes, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays are a little tough for us,” the A’s skipper said. “Hopefully, the way we’ve been playing will bring some more people out. It seems to have created a little bit more of a spotlight for us here, and hopefully, they come out and support us because when they do, we can feel them.”