A’s extend unbeaten series run to 10 with Chapman’s hit in 10th
OAKLAND >> Matt Chapman ducked into the mob engulfing him, darting off the field as he tried to escape the water bottles emptying on his head.
His high-bouncing ground ball snuck under the trusty glove of Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford and ricocheted into center field with two outs in the bottom of the 10th. Marcus Semien scored from second base with ease, gifting the Athletics their second extra-inning walk-off win in as many days against the Giants. Crawford didn’t break stride, charging
toward the chopper and continuing his jog right off the field as the home dugout emptied around him.
The A’s (57-43) have gone 10 series without losing one after Sunday’s 6-5 win in the deciding game of the Bay Bridge series. They’re 9-0-1 in series over that stretch, and stayed three games behind the Mariners for the American League’s second wild-card berth after Seattle’s win Sunday.
“It’s huge,” Chapman said of keeping pace with the Mariners after a second straight walk-off win. “It just shows the character of our team. We’re able to keep fighting until the last pitch, no matter whether we’re down or not. We always feel like we’re one swing away ... To come back twice in a row off a team like that, it was huge.”
Sean Manaea teased perfection on the mound again, retiring the first 13 batters he faced. The left-hander allowed only two balls
out of the infield during his flawless first 4 1/3 innings, striking out four, inducing six groundouts, one infield popout and only two flyouts. Manaea encountered trouble in the fifth when Nick Hundley ended his perfect-game bid with a single up the middle and Austin Slater doubled him home two batters later, but the A’s starter escaped further damage with a 3-1 lead after five innings.
Khris Davis and Matt Olson accounted for the hosts’ first three runs, Davis sending a Johnny Cueto changeup into the left-field seats for a two-run home run, his 22nd, in the first inning, and Olson annihilating a Cueto fastball into the rightfield seats for the A’s third run in the fourth. It was Olson’s 20th homer of the season. Then again in the sixth, Olson tattooed Cueto’s changeup just inside the right-field foul pole for his 21st homer of the season. Sunday marked the second time this season the first baseman has hit multiple home runs in a game.
“The long ball came out for us, which was big, with Olson and Davis, who supply a good deal of power for us,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Confidence-wise, we needed that, too. Since we’ve come back from the break, we haven’t really swung the bat very well and really haven’t driven too many balls.”
After finishing with 6 2/3 innings of two-run, four-hit ball, Manaea now boasts nine straight starts (all without a loss) in which he’s allowed three earned runs or fewer. He’s surrendered two earned runs or fewer in seven of those nine appearances. He’s 4-0 during that span, dating to June 5, and would’ve been 5-0 had it not been for the A’s bullpen losing his lead.
For the first time this season, the A’s trotted out reliever Yusmeiro Petit for a third straight day. The decision backfired. Andrew McCutchen took Petit deep to left on a full-count pitch with one out in the eighth to give the Giants a 5-4 lead. The A’s
responded to blowing a late lead for the second straight day, however, this time courtesy of Davis’ second home run of the day, an oppositefield blast off Mark Melancon to tie the score at five in the eighth.
Jeurys Familia handled the top of the ninth in his A’s debut only four hours after he arrived at his new home ballpark for the first time. The former Mets closer, who caught a 7 a.m. flight from New York Sunday morning, hadn’t allowed a run since June 27, a stretch spanning seven appearances. After
allowing a leadoff single to Slater, Familia struck out Steven Duggar swinging with a nasty slider and induced a 6-4-3 inning-ending double play off the bat of Alen Hanson. He executed a 1-2-3 10th inning, too, showing why Oakland traded for him. He provides a reliable late-inning option if All-Star closer Blake Treinen isn’t available. Treinen threw 40 pitches and blew a save opportunity Saturday.
“For the first time to be here I felt really comfortable,” Familia said through a translator. “You can see
the energy and the excitement in the team and that made me feel really comfortable to be here.”
Familia earned the win after Chapman’s walk-off hit. The A’s head to Texas, coming off yet another series win as one of baseball’s most surprising teams.
• Sandy Alderson, the former A’s general manager who guided the team to three consecutive World Series appearances from 1988-90, provided an update on his cancer recurrence during a celebration of Oakland’s 1989 championship team. He’s currently on a leave of absence as Mets GM.
“Health is actually pretty good,” Alderson said Saturday. “I’ve been doing some treatments. They are working and the prognosis is good and I feel good.”