Lowrie’s slam completes late comeback
DETROIT — Jed Lowrie was ready for Alex Wilson.
“I’ve faced Alex before, and I know he’s got a good cutter,” Lowrie said.
Lowrie hit a go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning, and the A’s overcame a four-run deficit to beat the Tigers 9-8 on Tuesday night.
“I was able to get on top of it,” Lowrie said. “We ground out a lot of at-bats to get back in it, and it ends up as a fun night of baseball.”
Lowrie went 3-for-5, including an RBI double in the third. That was his 47th double of the season, tying the Oakland record set by Jason Giambi in 2001.
Detroit trailed 3-0 in the third inning, then led 8-4 into the seventh before the A’s Ryon Healy hit a bases-loaded grounder to shortstop Jose Iglesias, who bobbled the ball for an error as Lowrie scored.
Joey Wendle, Franklin Barreto and Chad Pinder started the eighth with singles off Wilson (2-5), and Lowrie followed with his third career slam.
Wilson entered with a 3.07 ERA since moving into the setup role after the Tigers traded Justin Wilson to the Cubs.
“He’s been really good for us all year,” Detroit manager Brad Ausmus said. “The nature of pitching at the back end of the bullpen means that you are going to be in a lot of close games, so when you make a mistake, it probably costs your team the lead.”
Miguel Cabrera singled off Chris Hatcher starting the bottom of the eighth and took third on Nicholas Castellanos’ double. But Jeimer Candelario grounded out and, after an intentional walk, Hatcher struck out James McCann and Mikie Mahtook.
“The key was the groundout,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Once Hatch got that, we could move the defense back and play for two. That was a great job of pitching.”
Santiago Casilla (4-5) pitched a perfect seventh, and Blake Treinen allowed Alex Presley’s two-out single in the ninth before retiring Andrew Romine on a groundout for his ninth save.
Oakland’s Matt Olson homered for the fifth straight game, tying Matt Stairs (1998), Dave Kingman (1986) and George Alusik (1962) for the second-longest streak in A’s history behind Frank Thomas’ six in 2006.
“It’s cool, but honestly, I would like to mix in another hit one of these games,” said Olson, who has 15 home runs in his past 21 games.
“I’m done talking about him,” Melvin said. “I don’t have any more adjectives to use for him. I don’t even know what to say.”
Oakland starter Daniel Gossett allowed six runs, nine hits and three walks in 42⁄3 innings. Detroit starter Chad Bell gave up three runs, five hits and three walks in 31⁄3 innings. Dave Hogg is an Associated Press writer.