Marte’s feet, Manaea’s feat help Oakland win
Reynaldo López did not hazard a third pickoff throw. Starling Marte seized his chance. Marte broke from first base on a 2-1 pitch. Catcher Seby Zavala, fighting the odds, fired a throw to second. A headfirst slide carried Marte across the bag. The call returned: out.
It was jarring for the novelty. Matt Olson, in the batter’s box, turned to Zavala and shook his head with a smile. The A’s made their dissent formal, requesting a review that showed Marte’s left hand reached the base pre-tag. Marte stayed perfect in 22 stolen-base tries with Oakland. He was not done running.
An earlier A’s rally had fizzled with López picking Josh Harrison off second. The right-hander tried it again and his throw escaped into center field. Marte sped home. Olson, who had walked, took third and scored on a sacrifice fly. The thirdinning sequence gave the A’s a lead they did not relinquish in a 3-1 win.
Oakland has sought a spark amid a late-season lull. A series win over the AL Central leaders perhaps can provide it. The A’s next nine games are against sub-.500 teams. They are even with Seattle at 51⁄2 games back of AL West-leading Houston and play only those two teams the final two weeks.
“It’s huge,” starter Sean Manaea said. The White Sox “are a playoff team. So, I mean anytime you get a team like that, it’s a good indication of how we stack up. So playing against those guys and getting these last two wins was huge. And definitely, I think, a big momentum push for us.”
Manaea delivered a second strong outing after his August struggles. Facing a team with the AL’s second-highest OPS against lefties, he subdued it for seven innings. He recorded nine strikeouts in each of his past two starts.
“Being aggressive,” Manaea said. “Really establishing my fastball and throwing it with conviction. I feel like I was getting away from that and worrying about too many different things. So I feel like I’ve really simplified things . ... Just gone out there, and I keep telling myself to be aggressive with all my pitches.”
Manaea wielded good velocity Thursday. His fastball touched 96 mph and averaged 1.2 mph above his season mean. He and catcher Sean Murphy used it often; 73 of Manaea’s 101 pitches were fastballs. Chicago hitters swung at 40, missing nearly as many (10) as they put into play (12).
César Hernández struck a one-out double in the third and scored as José Abreu lined a single to center. Manaea retired 11 of his next 12 hitters, erasing the lone exception — Abreu, who singled in the sixth — on a double play.
Manaea retired his first two batters in the seventh, an inning he did not reach in any of five August starts. A close twostrike fastball to Billy Hamilton was ruled a ball. Hamilton drove the next pitch into the gap in left-center for a triple. Manaea
fell behind 3-0 to Danny Mendick. Oakland’s bullpen stirred for the first time. Manaea threw two final fastballs and Mendick lined out on the last.
“You know what, just stepped up,” manager Bob Melvin said of Manaea’s past two starts. “This time of year, you tend to be a little bit tired, and the last two starts it’s been anything but for him. I think the anomaly was probably going through a tough month with what he’s accomplished throughout the entire season. Coming down the stretch is when you expect big things from guys like him, and the last two times out, he’s been as good as he’s been all year.”
Sergio Romo worked a scoreless
eighth. Andrew Chafin, after recording six outs on 22 pitches Wednesday, picked up the save. A light scoring output stood up. Jed Lowrie doubled against López in the second inning and scored when Tony Kemp tripled to left field. Marte’s baserunning sparked a two-run third.
“This is a big series for us,” Melvin said. “Coming off of a really tough one in Toronto, and losing the first game of this series, we know we have to win a lot of series coming down the stretch. This looked to be a really difficult one. And to be able to come back after the first loss and win two games kind of shows you what this team’s made of.
“It doesn’t surprise me. I think everybody here expects to get on a little bit of a roll here. And hopefully these two wins against them catapult us.”