Milestone win for Melvin as A’s earn sweep
One night earlier, Bob Melvin earned his 600th win as the A’s manager, and on Wednesday, another victory put him alone in third place in franchise history, following Hall of Famers Connie Mack and Tony La Russa.
“What am I, three games behind Connie Mack’s record?” Melvin joked after the A’s 8-3 victory over Toronto at the Coliseum. “Those are guys you don’t even compare yourself to. Tony La Russa and Connie Mack are legends and I just try to make it to the next day.”
Oakland’s win was significant for another reason: With Houston’s win over Seattle on Wednesday, the A’s moved into a tie with the Mariners for the second wild-card spot. The last time Oakland was in a playoff position was at the end
of the 2014 season.
The A’s scored 24 runs in the three games after managing just four while getting swept at Colorado over the weekend. “I don’t want to say it was important, but to play as well as we were playing and to have three in a row handed to you, it humbles you a little bit,” Melvin said. “To get home and win three here and start off a long homestand, a long month of August at home, it works really well to get off to a good start.”
Before the game, Melvin tried to downplay his milestone mark, saying, “It just means I’ve been around a while and I’m very thankful the people above me have allowed that to happen.
“Every one of those wins is a product of the players winning the games. I’ll sit here and take the accolades or whatever, but I actually have very little to do with it.”
His mostly young players are doing unexpectedly well this season: After the three-game sweep of Toronto, the A’s are back to a season-high 18 games over .500, despite a rotation beset by injuries and with just one holdout from the opening week of the season, left-hander Sean Manaea.
Manaea worked six-plus innings Wednesday, extending the A’s string of starts without getting through seven innings; he was the last man to do so, on July 4. He had a strong outing against Toronto, leaving with Oakland up 7-0 and with a runner on. J.B. Wendelken allowed the run to score on a two-out double by Randal Grichuk.
Manaea, who allowed five hits and two walks with five strikeouts, improved to 10-7 — and he’s 6-0 with a 2.81 ERA during the day. The walks Wednesday were the first he’d allowed in three starts, and he has given up 1.18 walks per nine innings over his past 10 starts.
Melvin said that catcher Jonathan Lucroy had “been begging” to play in a day game after a night game.
“Not so much begging as demanding,” Lucroy said, grinning. “Look, we have a chance here to do something . ... Whenever you have a chance to win, you take full advantage of that chance.”
Lucroy provided much of the offense, with three hits and four RBIs, and second baseman Franklin Barreto clocked a solo homer in the eighth against his original organization; he was obtained in the Josh Donaldson deal after the 2014 season. Barreto also had a two-run double in the sixth, and Matt Chapman extended his streak of reaching base to 18 games; he’s batting .359 in that stretch.
End result: 601 wins for Melvin.
“It’s crazy, I’ve been on teams that have had a couple of managers, and all that time, BoMel has been here and has so many wins,” starter Trevor Cahill said. “He’s done a great job; the last few years have been rebuilding years and he’s still their guy. That shows what kind of confidence the front office has in him. That’s the biggest thing, when they stick with a manager through thick and thin, that’s how you know you’re good.”
The A’s won all seven of their games against Toronto this year, their first season series sweep of the Blue Jays and their first season sweep of a series of at least seven games since 2004.