Adam Rosales’ 2-run single completes comeback.
On a night Yonder Alonso flexed his new-found power, it was a little groundball single to left by Adam Rosales that gave Oakland a stunning, last-second win over Detroit.
The A’s trailed all night, but down one run in the ninth and down to their last strike, Bruce Maxwell drew a two-out walk from Francisco Rodriguez after being down 0-2 in the count. Matt Joyce then doubled to right and Rosales sent both runners home to give Oakland a 6-5 victory, the first walk-off win of the season for the A’s.
“We’ve been scuffling a little bit, but it just feels good to be together, to win together as a team,” Rosales said. “We all fought to the end in that ballgame.”
Rosales had not faced Rodriguez before, so he asked Khris Davis and Stephen Vogt for advice and they told him he’d get a fastball at some point.
“I was actually watching Joyce’s at-bat and I saw him swing through an off-speed pitch, and I’m like, ‘If I swing through an off-speed, so what? I know he’s going to give me a fastball sometime,’ ” Rosales said. “I didn’t know it was going to be the first pitch and a pitch that I could handle.”
It was the third career walkoff hit for Rosales, who was mobbed by his teammates between second and third, then got a whipped-cream pie in the face from Vogt during the postgame TV interview. The A’s had been the only team in the majors without a win in their last atbat, and they were on the verge of losing for the 10th time in 12 games.
“At this point in time, that was exactly what we needed,” A’s starter Jesse Hahn said. “That’s how win streaks start. Great team win right there, everyone had each other’s backs. That’s what it’s all about, that’s why we’re a team.”
Joyce ended an 0-for-10 streak with his double. Signed to a two-year deal in the offseason, he’s batting .188, so Saturday’s double was one of his biggest for the A’s, and his slide into home to win the game was a beauty: headfirst and to the outside, avoiding the tag by Alex Avila.
The win went to reliever Frankie Montas, who had allowed 12 runs in his previous eight appearances but who worked a scoreless top of the ninth. It was the first victory of his career.
“What a night. A lot of contributions, man,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We used just about everybody we had, and I think (it was) big for Frankie Montas to go and put up a zero. Guys were telling him when he came in the dugout, ‘We’re gonna get you a win tonight.’ Everybody had a part in it.”
Alonso, in his sixth bigleague season, recorded his first career two-homer game, and his eight homers in 30 games top his total for all of last year. His career high: nine with San Diego in 2012. His 22 RBIs lead the team and put him in the top 10 in the league, and he’s batting .360 with seven homers and 15 RBIs over his past 15 games.
“Unbelievable,” Hahn said. “He’s one of the hottest bats in baseball right now in my opinion. He needs to stay right there because he’s doing a lot of big things for us.”
Ryon Healy also had an interesting night, as is his wont. Making his seventh start of the season at third base, Healy misplayed two balls in the second inning — the second while in the shortstop position on a shift — leading to an unearned run.
Naturally, he led off the bottom of the inning, and he crushed a homer to left off Jordan Zimmermann.
“That shows you some toughness, because it’s easy to just fold up tent after you make a couple errors and back off just a little bit, but he doesn’t,” Melvin said. “He’s a fierce competitor, and he’s not going to let something like that bother him. I played with Bob Brenly, who had four errors in one inning and ended up hitting a walk-off homer, and there’s similarities to the intensity and the confidence those guys have.”