Rookie’s 2 HRs set stage for walk-off
Left fielder Khris Davis was chowing down after his tworun walk-off homer against the Indians on Saturday night when he turned to Matt Chapman and told the rookie, “Hey, teach me how to hit Kluber.”
Exactly a month after he became a major-leaguer, a struggling Chapman hit his first two homers, both off 2014 Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber, including an eighth-inning drive to dead center to tie a game the A’s won 5-3 on Davis’ homer in the ninth off Bryan Shaw.
Nobody was out when Davis hit a 3-2 pitch over the wall in right-center for his 25th homer. Yonder Alonso was on first base after Andrew Miller walked him.
One of the A’s best wins of the year came at the expense of the defending American League champs and one of the game’s best starters. Kluber was on a terrific roll and had allowed just five homers since Opening Day before Chapman took him deep twice.
Chapman had three of the
hits that Kluber allowed in 71⁄3 innings, including a double that led to Oakland’s second run. Even in his worst game in more than a month, Kluber struck out 12.
The night’s two long-ball hitters have a connection: They went to Cal State Fullerton. Davis is five years older, and a young Chapman watched Davis play there. When they first met at spring training, Chapman revealed that when he was with the Titans, there was a Khris Davis poster in the clubhouse.
“That made me feel like a big deal,” Davis said.
Chapman’s month in the bigs has been, um, interesting. He had a game-winning hit against the Yankees in his first weekend but lasted four days before he was KOd by a knee infection that landed him in the hospital.
He struggled after he returned from the disabled list and was batting .146 when Kluber hung a slider in the third inning and Chapman crushed it over the wall in left-center for his first bigleague homer.
Kluber was leading 3-2 when he returned for the eighth inning and fed Chapman a first-pitch fastball at 93 mph. A Rickey Henderson Night crowd of 33,021 watched Chapman slam it over the wall in center to tie the game.
Chapman hit 80 homers in four minor-league seasons. Now he has two in the mafive jors, both off a two-time AllStar.
“At every classification, he’s gone through some struggles, and once he found it, he hit home runs,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Now you’re seeing what everyone’s excited about.”
Chapman reviewed his night while wearing a T-shirt that read “Oakland A’s. Walkoffs welcome.”
“It’s been a crazy month,” Chapman said, “from playing to the hospital to the ups and downs. But I wouldn’t be happy any other way.”
The two Chapman homers, plus Davis’ walk-off on a 3-2 pitch from Shaw, overshadowed the work of another A’s rookie.
Brentwood’s Paul Blackburn made his third bigleague start. It was not as good as his first two, but he kept the A’s in the hunt against Kluber for six innings. Blackburn allowed three runs, two on an Edwin Encarnacion homer.
Blackburn also justified Melvin’s decision to keep him in the game after he allowed the go-ahead run in the sixth and still needed two outs to prevent another runner at second from scoring. The right-hander got two groundballs to end the inning
Melvin said he did stayed with Blackburn partly because of how well the right-hander had pitched in his first two games against the Braves and Mariners, but also as a test to see how the 23-year-old pitcher would respond to a tough situation. The answer was in the boxscore.
Liam Hendricks, Daniel Coulombe and trade candidate Ryan Madson pitched three perfect innings in relief, setting the stage for Davis’ gameending blast.