A’s taken down by Rangers’ walk-off home run
ARLINGTON, Texas – Joey Gallo knew he hit the ball far enough. The young slugger’s only concern was if it would stay fair.
It did, and the Texas Rangers won with a game-ending three-run homer for the second night in a row.
Gallo’s 12th homer of the season ricocheted high off the foul pole down the right field line for a 5-2 victory over Oakland on Friday night.
“I was like, ‘ OK, that’s gone.’ And then it started hooking really quick,” Gallo said. “That was the first one I ever hit off the foul pole, so that was pretty cool.”
For the Rangers, the ending was pretty much a repeat of Thursday night, when Mike Napoli’s threerun homer capped a four-run ninth inning to beat the San Diego Padres by the same 5-2 score.
“To win them in that kind of fashion ... it’s momentum,” Gallo said. “In a million years, I didn’t think it would be the same threerun home run to win it.”
Texas matched a season high with its fourth consecutive victory.
Jonathan Lucroy and Rougned Odor got the ninth started with consecutive singles. Napoli then hit a deep sacrifice fly to tie the game.
Odor was stopped at third when Carlos Gomez doubled into the right-center gap, but they all came home when Gallo pulled the fullcount pitch off A’s closer Santiago Casilla (1-2).
“We were trying to strike him out,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Man on third, one out. He’s a good hitter, but he’s their biggest strikeout guy.”
Gallo does have a majors-high 54 strikeouts, but is also second in the AL with the 12 homers and leads the Rangers with 27 RBIs. He is playing regularly in place of veteran third baseman Adrian Beltre, who has been on the disabled list all season with a calf issue.
Gomez led off the Texas fifth with a double, went to third on an errant pickoff throw, then tied the game at 1-1 on a squeeze bunt by
Molinos in the opening round of the Northern Section Division V playoffs.
Goyet got off to fast start by striking out the side in the top of the first and struck out two batters in each inning after that. He walked two and allowed only one ball to leave the infield, finishing off seven dominant innings on only 80 pitches to propel East Nic into Tuesday’s section semifinal.
“I expect it every time, actually. Every time he’s on the bump I have confidence in our team, especially if our defense performs well, which they did today,” said third-year Spartans coach Allen Born.
“To me, this is not unexpected. I’ve been fortunate enough to coach these seniors since they were freshmen and I love him to death.
“Hopefully we can ride him and get our bats to work next week.”
For Goyet, it was all about being relaxed. In a win-or-gohome scenario where one pitch could be change the outcome, he knew he had to be at his best – and he delivered.
“We came into playoff week looking to have fun and that’s what I was down for. We had a positive week at practice and everything was great, and that just led up to game time and I was ready,” Goyet said.
“I trust my catcher (Caleb Born) with everything. If he says curve on the first pitch, I’m throwing a curve because I trust him and I know my teammates behind me are going to do their job.”
Goyet’s teammates gave him all the run support he would need in the bottom of the first when Tyler Jensen smacked a lead-off single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Adin Starr for a quick 1-0 lead.
The score remained the same until the fourth, when clean-up hitter S.J. Brown turned on a 3-1 offering from Bulldogs’ starter Devin Henderson and launched a solo home run high over the fence in left to make it 2-0.
East Nicolaus finished the game with only five hits against Henderson, but added an insurance run in the sixth when Starr singled and scored on an RBI double by Caleb Born.
After struggling at the midway point of the season, the Mid-Valley League champion Spartans have now won seven games in a row and have their first playoff victory since 2012.
Up next for East Nicolaus (13-8) in Tuesday’s semifinal game at top-seeded Quincy (193), which picked up a 9-1 win over No. 8 Biggs on Friday.
“We were a little disappointed that we were league champions and were seeded fourth. Obviously, our performance today was not indicative of the season we’ve had and how we finished,” Allen Born said. “I was a little nervous about having a week off that we would loose our momentum and that was evident today with our bats. We’re better than that.
“We’ll take the win, however, and we’re going to go back to work tomorrow and try to get ready for Tuesday’s game.”