Sports: 10-run inning helps A’s to sixth straight win.
Ten-run third inning, combined one-hitter pull Oakland one game out of top AL wild-card spot
BALTIMORE >> In a domination of epic proportions, it’s hard to determine what was more impressive for the A’s — pitching or hitting?
The A’s fourth installment of the “bullpenning” method this season was by far their most successful in Wednesday’s 10-0 win over the Orioles, which brought them within one game of the New York Yankees for the top AL wildcard spot with 16 remaining.
Opener Liam Hendriks allowed a hit in the first before Daniel Mengden, Ryan Dull, JB Wendelken, and Aaron Brooks combined to keep the Orioles hitless the rest of the night.
But the A’s offensive explosion that resulted in career-highs galore in the third inning was nextlevel ridiculous.
“I don’t know that I’ve been a part of one of those,” said A’s first baseman Matt Olson.
An inning that began with Nick Martini leading off with a single against Andrew Cashner resulted in a total of 15 plate appearances,
10 of those producing hits, and 10 runs crossing home plate.
Khris Davis singled home a run for his career-high tying 110th RBI of the season.
Olson crushed his career-high 26th home run — a three-run shot that made it 7-0.
The home runs came more frequently in Olson’s 2017 rookie campaign as he smacked 25 homers over just 189 big league at-bats. Such a torrid pace was unrealistic to expect to be replicated this year, but Olson said this season has been a “grind” offensively for him, entering the night batting .239.
Surpassing last season’s home run total is something Olson looks forward to look back on when the season is over.
“To be able to kind of step back and look at things like that is good,” Olson said. “It’s nice to know there’s some positives.”
Olson’s homer also happened to be the A’s 200th home run of the season. It’s just the second time the A’s have reached the 200-mark
for a season since 2002.
Stephen Piscotty followed up that home run by extending his career-high hitting streak to 13 games with a single.
All this happened in one inning. An inning that felt like it would never end as Cashner failed to record an out against any of the eight batters he faced in the frame before getting pulled for Cody Carroll.
Carroll would eventually record the final out of the inning with a strikeout of Davis, which drew a half-hearted cheer from the small crowd of an announced 10,480 fans assembled at Camden Yards that chose to show up and soldier through watching what has been the worst team in baseball.
The inning took 32 minutes to complete, and 11 A’s hitters reached base before the first out was finally recorded.
“You’d think 10 runs in a game you might spread it out across a few innings,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “It was nice to create some distance and give the bullpen a break and get some guys in the game. But for it to all happen in one inning, that’s kind of unique.”
The 10 runs in the inning were a season-high for the A’s, with the 10 hits a matching an Oakland record for most hits in an inning, the third time in history that feat has been achieved.
Martini, Jonathan Lucroy, and Matt Chapman each picked up two hits in the inning.
A big night by the A’s offense is no surprise. They’ve shown they can slug with the best of them, entering the night with the thirdmost homers in the majors.
Perhaps getting the hang of this whole “bullpenning” thing is more satisfactory. It has worked out well for Mengden, who after holding the Orioles hitless over five innings has allowed just one hit over 9 2/3 scoreless innings his last two times entering games in relief of Hendriks.
“It seems like he’s getting more and more confident and comfortable knowing he’s gonna get the second inning,” Melvin said. “We saw him pitch at the end of last year as well as anyone we have and really the month of May also. He’s a great resource to have and we feel confident in him, especially the way he’s pitching right now.”
During a time when the A’s have officially lost No. 1 starter Sean Manaea for the year and probably all of next season, the A’s need somebody to step up and provide reliability each time out, as Mengden has done his past two appearances.
The A’s will likely conclude the season utilizing the strategy at least one time through the rotation, and Mengden could be the pitcher perfectly suited to handle the role given it was his third time pitching in the sequence.
“Coming out of the bullpen has been a little different to start, but you start to sort of grasp it well,” Mengden said. “I have a better understanding of what I need to do to get ready and get going.”