Kemp’s hit wins it in ‘probably the worst game I’ve played’

The “Let’s go Red Sox” chants, initiated by a couple of thousand Boston fans behind the firstbase dugout, were drowned out Saturday by chants of “Let’s go Oakland.”

At the end of a wild and grueling 12inning game at the Coliseum, A’s fans got the final cheer, thanks to Tony Kemp, whose sacrifice fly scored Seth Brown to secure Oakland’s 76 victory.

Kemp redeemed himself after making a costly error and mysteriously bunting with the bases loaded and no outs in the 10th inning — and popping out. This time, he swung away and was mobbed near first base by his teammates, elated the 4hour, 24minute game went their way.

“That was a relief,” Kemp said. “Leading up to that point of the game, thinking back, that was probably the worst game I’ve played in the big leagues.”

The A’s trailed 64 entering the bottom of the 12th and scored three times. Sean Murphy reached on an

infield single, and Brown singled to rightcenter, his third runscoring hit of the night, to bring in Ramon Laureano, who had been placed at second.

Jed Lowrie’s double tied the game and moved Brown to third, allowing Kemp another chance to win it. This time, he did.

In his postgame interview, Kemp was emotional and hard on himself for letting his team down for much of the game. As he left his chair, he let out a scream.

“Sometimes you help your team win, and sometimes you help your teams lose,” Kemp said. “Unfortunately, for a long time in that game, I was on the unfortunate end of that.”

The A’s outhit the Red Sox 159 but were 2for18 with runners in scoring position in the first 11 innings while stranding 16 runners, at least one every inning. They had plenty of chances in the ninth, 10th and 11th for a walkoff celebration, but nobody came up big.

The 10th inning was especially irritating. With the bags full and no outs, stunningly, Kemp popped up a bunt. Then came an inningending double play — Elvis Andrus hit a vicious liner to left, and J.D. Martinez threw a strike to the plate to nail Murphy.

Manager Bob Melvin called the bunt “a bit of a mixup,” and Kemp called it “just some communication.” Neither would say it was a missed sign.

Before his final trip to the plate, Kemp apologized to Melvin for the bunt. “He patted me on the butt and said, ‘Go get ’em.’ That’s why he’s one of the best managers in the game.”

Melvin could tell Kemp wanted redemption.

“You’ve got to fight though some demons when you don’t get off to a good start,” Melvin said. “Something like that happens dramatically, and you end up coming up with the last atbat, that’s good stuff.”

The crowd of 16,297, about half the size of Friday night’s baseball/fireworks extravaganza, was intensely involved throughout all 12 innings, and it appeared most the folks stayed until the end.

The A’s got another nice pitching performance. Cole Irvin worked seven innings and gave up two earned runs. Problem was, the Red Sox scored two unearned runs on Irvin’s watch.

The A’s defense mostly has been solid and efficient in 2021, but errors by Kemp at second and Murphy at catcher allowed the Red Sox to run wild in the fourth.

Kemp’s fielding error gave Xander Bogaerts a free base. And after Rafael Devers smoked a 108 mph shot past Kemp — a hit all the way — Murphy tried to catch Devers off first but made an errant throw into the Red Sox bullpen.

Mitch Moreland was the designated hitter when the game started, but he was pulled for Frank Schwindel, and the team gave no specific explanation.

“Nonbaseball issue,” Melvin said. Asked if Moreland would be available to play Sunday’s series finale, Melvin said no.

Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images Tony Kemp was not happy with his performance after the A’s extrainning victory over the Red Sox.