Lowrie smashes grand slam as A’s fight past Tigers
DETROIT >> On a night when Jed Lowrie tied the franchise record for doubles by an A’s player in Oakland, it was his last at-bat that provided Tuesday’s biggest moment.
Lowrie, batting with the A’s trailing by three in the eighth inning with the bases loaded, unloaded on Tigers reliever Alex Wilson for a grand slam to right that propelled the A’s to a 9-8 win in Detroit.
In the third inning, Lowrie put the A’s up 3-0 with an RBI double to center field. It was his 47th double of the season, tying Jason Giambi’s record for the franchise during its time in the Bay Area.
“That’s a fun night of baseball right there,” Lowrie said. “When you’re scoring as many runs as we are, and grinding out at-bats the way we do, you feel like you’re never out of it.”
“Talk about big homers,” manager Bob Melvin said with a smile on his face. “That was the biggest of them all.”
Detroit threatened to put a damper on Lowrie’s big night in the bottom of the eighth, putting the first two men on, and then loading the bases with one out against Chris Hatcher. The veteran reliever dialed it up under pressure, striking out James McCann and Mikie Mahtook to escape the jam.
“He’s a pretty tough competitor,” Melvin said of Hatcher. “The key to the inning was getting the first guy out, but then he gets a big punch out and we can play back.”
Early, it looked like A’s rookie first baseman Matt Olson would steal headlines again, belting a solo home run in the second inning to spot his team a 1-0 lead.
It was the fifth consecutive game in which Olson has gone deep. He leads the majors with 19 home runs since Aug. 11, and his 23 homers are the most in A’s history through a player’s first 66 career games. All have come in the 55 games he’s played in 2017.
“I’ve run out of superlatives,” Melvin said. “Go ask him about it. I’ve never seen anything close to it for a rookie.”
“It’s just one of those things that’s happening,” Olson said. “It’s cool. It’d be nice if I could mix in another hit, but I’m not complaining at all.”
Despite being given an early lead, A’s starter Daniel Gossett wasn’t able to get the win. He gave up a solo home run to Ian Kinsler in the third before really coming apart in the fifth. After escaping a bases loaded jam in the fourth, McCann didn’t let Gossett off the hook this time around, putting the Tigers up 5-3 with a tworun triple down the left field line.
Gossett gave up six runs over 4 2/3 innings, surrendering nine hits, while walking three and striking out three.
Nick Castellanos’ tworun home run in the sixth put the Tigers up 6-4 and pushed the Tigers rightfielder’s hit streak to 16 games.
Lowrie finished 3 for 5 with five RBIs, and Matt Chapman hit his 13th home run, a solo shot in the second.