Davis clubs A’s past Orioles in 12th; Giants batter Braves
Cahill, relievers keep O’s scoreless until offense stirs
OAKLAND >> With Major League Baseball in an era of strikeouts and home runs, the A’s got both Saturday night in a 2-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles. It’s just that they had to wait awhile for the home run.
Khris Davis launched a two-run homer with one out in the bottom of the 12th inning off reliever Pedro Araujo to begin a walkoff celebration at the Coliseum in front of what was left of a crowd of 24,612.
The home run came after the A’s had been held without a hit from the fourth through 11th innings until Jed Lowrie singled solidly to center with one out in the 12th.
Araujo fell behind in the count to Davis and paid the price.
“It was a 3-1 fastball,” Davis said. “He went 3-0, I took a strike to see a strike, and he came back with another fastball and I put a good swing on it.”
It was the ninth home run of the season for Davis, the third walk-off of his career and the first time in A’s history dating back to 1901 they won a scoreless extra-inning game on a walk-off homer.
Chris Hatcher, the fourth A’s reliever, got the win by getting the final two outs of the 12th to improve to 3-0.
Neither starting pitcher was involved in the decision, with Trevor Cahill striking out a career-high 12 in just six innings, and Baltimore’s Brian Gausman throwing the game of his life with nine innings of two-hit ball.
The A’s had a first-inning single by Marcus Semien, another in the third by Brian Maxwell, and then nothing else until the deciding blows from Lowrie and Davis.
“I don’t think we hit a ball hard all night until the last inning, when we got two,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said.
With Cahill signing a oneyear deal after the A’s lost Jharel Cotton to Tommy John surgery and not having a spring training, Melvin pulled him after six innings and 97 pitches.
Cahill was followed by Yusmeiro Petit (two innings), Santiago Casilla (two innings), Daniel Coulombe (1 1/3 innings) and finally Hatcher. In all, Orioles hitters struck out 20 times against the A’s, tied for third most in franchise history.
“The further you get in a game like that, the more the pitchers really have to grind,” Melvin said. “No one wants to be the guy that gives up the run.”
Cahill, who has added a changeup to his repertoire, has 31 strikeouts in 24 innings since his first start with the A’s on April 17.
As Melvin sat at the podium following the game, he looked at amazement at the boxscore and Cahill’s strikeout total.
“He had 12 punch-outs?” Melvin said.
Cahill wasn’t sure of the count, but he knew he was piling up the strikeouts.
“You start getting that momentum where you pump the zone, and when you get ahead you’re trying to put them away,” Cahill said. “Sometimes that will hurt you as far as the pitch count. But a game like today, it was a really close, low-scoring game, and it was a good time to go for a strikeout. A close game like that, one pitch could be a loss.”
The two teams combined for 31 strikeouts, with A’s batters striking out 11 times against Gausman and reliever Michael Gibens.
The win improved the A’s record to 17-16, with seven wins in the past eight games at home as they go for a series sweep Sunday against the Orioles, who fell to 8-25.
It was the second time in four games the A’s pulled out a win despite facing a pitcher who was throwing the best game of his career. In Seattle Wednesday night, left-hander James Paxton struck out 16 batters in seven innings and left with a 2-0 lead, with the A’s rallying against the bullpen to win 3-2.
“You’ve got to tip your hat to Gausman,” Melvin said. “He’s throwing 89 to 91 early in the game and I think his last pitch was 98. When you’re in the ninth inning and you’re throwing harder than you did the entire game, there’s some adrenaline going, but he pitched a hell of a game.”
• Davis has 94 home runs since the start of the 2016 season, one more than Giancarlo Stanton for the most in baseball during that span. Six of his homers this season have put the A’s ahead and eight have come with runners on base.
“I just take every A.B. with the same approach and put together a quality A.B.,” Davis said. “That’s just the way the numbers are falling right now.”
• Petit threw two scoreless innings one night after giving up five hits and three runs in 1/3 of an inning as the Orioles tied the game 4-4 — a game the A’s eventually won 6-4.
“I knew we were going to have to use Yusie for two,” Melvin said. “We’ve got no problem with that, and he had no problem with it.”