Oakland wins on eve of possible postponements
Though the A’s crossbay neighbors and one of their division foes decided not to take the field in support of racial justice, Oakland’s players went ahead with their game at Texas.
“It was really close to game time and we decided to play,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said after the A’s 31 victory over the Rangers. “I did give anyone who did not feel comfortable playing the option not to play but it was just kind of too rushed. Everyone was united in playing.”
Thursday’s game might be a different matter. “We’re going to talk more about it as a group,” Melvin said. “Extensively as a group.”
The A’s did not make any players available to speak with the media after the game. Asked if any players had considered not playing, Melvin said, “No, they wanted to be united as a group in what we did. But I just wanted to make sure I covered all our bases. It was uncomfortable before the game, and you see some other teams playing . ... Our guys said, ‘Look, we’re going to play tonight and tomorrow we’ll discuss it as a group.’ ”
Earlier Wednesday, the Reds and Brewers decided not to play and by game time at Texas, the
Mariners and Padres also had called off their game, and the Giants and Dodgers were in discussions about their eventual decision not to play.
The firstplace A’s already are looking at the possibility of having games postponed this weekend. The team is scheduled to fly to Houston after Thursday evening’s game, and Hurricane Laura is expected to strike the area in the early hours Thursday.
Melvin said the belief is that they’ll be able to get in the threegame series at Minute Maid Park, which has a roof, but the team is monitoring the situation.
Wednesday’s game was characterized, for the most part, by little offense. The Rangers’ lone run, in the third, came on a throwing error by catcher Sean Murphy that allowed ShinSoo Choo to score after stealing third
base. The A’s didn’t record a hit off Kolby Allard until the sixth inning — but that hit drove in a run, so you probably can guess who was responsible: August RBI king Stephen Piscotty. His 26 RBIs in the month lead the majors. and are the most in August by an A’s player since Eric Chavez drove in 30 runs in 2002.
Piscotty’s single to left followed consecutive walks to Marcus Semien and Ramón Laureano. When Allard then walked Mark Canha, he exited and his replacement, Luis Garcia, uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Laureano to score. “It’s not like we had a lot of success off him,” Melvin said of Allard. “But we did enough work to get in position to get him out of the game and score some runs. We did it nonhome run again, which is key for us to be able to win games like that.”
The A’s added another run in the eighth when Robbie Grossman was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.
Oakland starter Mike Fiers (41) had another good outing, allowing one unearned run in six innings; he gave up three hits and two walks, and he struck out seven, including five in a row at one point. The A’s bullpen added three more scoreless innings and hasn’t allowed a run in 262⁄3 innings. Liam Hendriks earned his majorleagueleading 10th save.
“Fiers was as good as we’ve seen him all year,” Melvin said. “He’s gotten progressively better every game, and then the bullpen came in and did what they’ve been doing all year.”
The A’s improved to a seasonhigh 12 games over .500, at 2210, and they’re now 70 in games started by opposing lefthanders. Their lead over Houston in the AL West stands at 4½ games.
“It doesn’t feel like rolling but we find different ways to win,” Melvin said, “which is great.”
The A’s organization has a history of backing protests centered on racial justice. Three years ago, Bruce Maxwell was the first player to kneel during the national anthem, acting in solidarity with Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players, and the club expressed firm support for the catcher at the time. The pitching mound at the Coliseum has had “BLM” written in the dirt all season, and a Black Lives Matters banner hangs in the outfield.
In June, the team donated $100,000 to the Oakland NAACP, Oakland AfricanAmerican Chamber of Commerce, and 100 Black Men of the Bay Area; $50,000 collectively to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Equal Justice Initiative, Jackie Robinson Foundation, Campaign Zero, and Oakland’s own Color of Change; and $10,000 each to the East Oakland Youth Development Center and the Oakland Indie Alliance.
In addition, Oakland second baseman Tony Kemp started his +1 Effect project to open up dialogue about race in America earlier this year after George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, and Kemp has since taken part in several round tables about racial justice. Susan Slusser covers the A’s for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser