Vogt makes most of chance with A’s

OAKLAND, Calif. — Stephen Vogt triumphantly raised his right arm as he took off for first and did it again with a celebratory whipped cream pie covering his face. Then, once more for the cheering crowd as he left the field following another improbable Oakland walkoff win.

No doubt Vogt will cherish that moment. Thanks to him and fellow rookie Sonny Gray, the Athletics head to Detroit tied with the Tigers at one win apiece in their bestoffive AL division series after Vogt’s gamewinning hit in a 10 victory Saturday.

This spring, the catcher sat for six days in Durham, N.C., wondering about his baseball future. He didn’t make the Rays’ openingday roster and figured to start the season there at TripleA.

A pennant race, let alone playoffs, were never even a thought.

“Just sitting and waiting,” Vogt recalled.

Vogt left the Tampa Bay organization for the Bay Area on April 5, traded back home to his native California, only a couple of hours from where he grew up and still lives in Visalia.

“Going into this season, I told myself I was obviously going to be with Tampa and battling for playing time up there and in Durham, playing my three positions, moving around and hopefully hit well enough to get a call up,” Vogt said.

After striking out twice against Justin Verlander, Vogt fouled off seven pitches in a 10pitch atbat that ended the seventh. His next time up, he lined a basesloaded single into leftcenter that won the game.

“The one in the ninth, you come up bases loaded, nobody out, and that’s what you dream of,” Vogt said.

Manager Bob Melvin stuck with Vogt in that pressure situation. A lefthanded hitter, Vogt is getting regular playing time against righthanded starters.

“He has been giving us good atbats,” Melvin said. “Even though he had strikeouts, we ultimately had faith in him, and he came through for us.”

A minor league journeyman who turns 29 next month, Vogt needed 33 atbats to get his first major league hit, a home run against St. Louis on June 28.

“I spent a yearandahalf of my life waiting for a hit,” Vogt said. “It wasn’t every day. It’s been fun this second go around up here being able to relax and just play the way I know how to play..”