Athletics dig deep to rally and keep their season alive
Ramon Laureano sensed his teammates’ energy dragging. They were down three runs with time running out to save their season.
So the Oakland outfielder lit into them in the dugout during the sixth inning, getting so loud he was heard easily in mostly empty Dodger Stadium.
And just in case Laureano’s words did not get the message across, he ripped a double as the Athletics got a pair of sacrifice f lies in the eighth to rally past the Houston Astros 9- 7 on Wednesday and avoid elimination in their AL Division Series.
“We live another day,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said.
Suitably inspired by Laureano’s outburst, Chad Pinder tied the score with a three- run homer in the seventh before Sean Murphy hit the go- ahead sac f ly in the eighth.
“Ramon got everything f ired up, saying this wasn’t it, we’re not going to let it be our last game, we’ve gone through too much this season,” Pinder said. “It was awesome.”
Houston leads the best- of- f ive series 2- 1 and can advance to its fourth straight AL Championship Series with a victory in Game 4 on Thursday.
“There’s never a doubt in this team,” Oakland starter Jesus Luzardo said. “We can go ahead and win three in a row.”
The Astros wasted leads of 2- 1 and 7- 4, and the Athletics bounced back after giving up advantages of 1- 0 and 4- 2.
Houston’s bullpen had stif led Oakland in the f irst two games with seven shutout innings of onehit relief, but Pinder ended that dominance.
Houston led 7- 4 when Marcus Semien and Tommy La Stella had back- to- back singles off Josh James starting the seventh. Pinder hit a f irst- pitch slider to the opposite field for Oakland’s fifth homer, a drive chased by right fielder Kyle Tucker until he ran out of room at the short wall.
La Stella, Mark Canha, Matt Olson and Semien also homered for the A’s, whose entire infield went deep. Teams outhomering opponents are 18- 0 in the postseason.
“They beat us with the home run ball,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said. “Tough to take but we have to come back tomorrow.”
Rays 8, Yankees 4: Randy Arozarena homered for the third straight game and Kevin Kiermaier and Michael Perez also went deep for Tampa Bay, which beat New York to move within one victory of reaching the ALCS for the first time in 12 years.
New York’s Giancarlo Stanton hit a two- run homer off rookie Shane McClanahan to center f ield in the eighth inning to become the first player with a home run in each of his team’s f irst f ive games of a single postseason. Stanton has six homers in those f ive games. McClanahan made his major league debut in Game 1 on Monday night.
The Rays took a 2- 1 lead in the best- of- five Division Series. Game 4 is Thursday night at Petco Park, which has yielded 16 home runs in three games — nine by Tampa Bay.
The Rays are looking to advance out of the ALDS for just the second time. They reached the 2008 World Series before losing to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Arozarena, a 25- year- old rookie from Havana who’s nicknamed “The Cuban Rocket,” is having a breakout postseason. He homered off Gerrit Cole in the first inning of Game 1, a 9- 3 Yankees win, and off rookie Deivi Garcia in the f irst inning of Game 2, a 7- 5 Rays win.
He hit a shot deep to left leading off the f ifth Wednesday night to chase Masahiro Tanaka and give the Rays a 5- 1 lead.
Arozarena went three for four with a walk. He leads all players in the postseason with 12 hits in f ive games.