Wild time! Walk-off win puts magic number at 1
OAKLAND >> Throughout the week, A’s manager Bob Melvin refused to even entertain the idea of potentially clinching a playoff berth at home until the day presented itself. That day is here.
Stephen Piscotty’s mad dash home to score the game-winning run on a walk-off wild pitch from Trevor Hildenberger in Saturday’s 3-2 victory over the Twins cut the A’s magic number to one. This means the A’s (94-61) can clinch a playoff spot in front of their home fans today with a win or loss by the Tampa Bay Rays, who will begin their game three hours before the A’s step onto the field.
“It should be pretty rowdy,” Melvin said of the atmosphere he expects for today’s game. “You can’t help but think back to 2012 when we came a long way back and swept Texas to win the division. It was hard not to at times focus on the crowd tonight, because they were so into it. My guess is it will be pretty spirited tomorrow.”
The wild pitch by Hildenberger came on the first pitch he threw to Matt Chapman with the bases loaded and two outs in the ninth, producing an eruption from the crowd of 36,731 at the Coliseum. It was the A’s first walk-off victory via wild pitch since April 26, 1997 vs. Kansas City.
Though Mark Canha struck out just before Chapman, his long atbat may have been a key factor.
Canha was in a battle with a fellow Cal alum in Hildenberger,
fouling off six pitches before eventually swinging through the 11th pitch of the at-bat for strike three.
“He made him work hard and then the first pitch gets away from him,” Melvin said. “Mark probably had a little something to do with that.”
Mike Fiers did not earn the win, but he was deserving of it.
The right-hander limited the Twins (71-83) to just one run over six innings with five strikeouts before turning it over to the bullpen at just 79 pitches. In nine starts since he was acquired via trade from the Detroit Tigers in August, the A’s have gone 8-1 in those starts, and Fiers has posted a 2.72 ERA.
“It looked like he was getting better as the game went along,” Melvin said. “Any time you give us six innings and a lead, we feel pretty good about where we’re going. He’s been terrific for us and as consistent as you really could hope for.”
In the two months Fiers has been with Oakland, the club’s ability to close out close games is unlike anything he could recall being a part of in his eight big league seasons. The A’s are 31-13 in one-run games overall — the best record in the majors.
Though the A’s have maintained they would be comfortable playing a wild-card game against the Yankees on the road, the thought of hosting that game gets Fiers, no pun intended, fired up. So don’t expect the A’s to just coast against the Mariners and Angels in their final two series of the season should they end up clinching today.
“We’re gonna have to put it to Seattle and LA, because we want that home-field advantage as well,” Fiers said. “That’d be huge.”
Jeurys Familia took over in the seventh tasked with the responsibility of holding a one-run lead, but gave it up just three batters in after back-to-back hits by Ehire Adrianza and Willians Astudillo tied the game. Famila was unable to complete the inning, pulled for Ryan Buchter after recording the second out.
It’s been a rough go for Familia as of late, along with fellow back-end bullpen mates Lou Trivino and Fernando Rodney. When these three pitchers entered the game most of the season, it was usually game over for the opposing side. But in the month of September, the trio has built up an ugly 7.83 ERA over 23 innings.
Marcus Semien’s two-run homer off Chase De Jong in the fifth, his 13th of the season, put the A’s ahead 2-1.
• Trevor Cahill (back) will start Sunday for the first time since Sept. 9. The righthander is 6-3 with a 3.77 ERA over 19 starts this season, and has been excellent at the Coliseum, where he’s 5-0 with a 1.49 ERA in 10 starts.
As for how the rotation will line up when the club travels to Seattle for a threegame series with the Mariners starting Monday, Melvin said Brett Anderson and Edwin Jackson will pitch the first two games, with Liam Hendriks likely to start the finale as the opener.
• Rookie sensation Lou Trivino has hit the first major rough patch of his big league career. After dominating as the bridge to AllStar closer Blake Treinen for most of the season looking like a strong candidate for AL Rookie of the Year, Trivino entered Saturday night having allowed 12 runs in his past 12 outings.
His latest struggles came in Friday’s extra-inning victory over the Twins, where he squandered a four-run lead by surrendering a tworun home run and failing to record any of the four batters he faced in the sixth inning.
The four earned runs ballooned Trivino’s ERA up to 3.00 after it sat below 2.00 throughout the first five months of the season. Melvin said he’ll likely give Trivino a breather with a lower-leverage situation in the next couple of days, but he won’t shy away from using the rookie in critical situations.
“We’re not gonna run away from him. We’re gonna need him if we go a little bit further than this,” Melvin said. “It just looks like his ball straightened out a little bit. Maybe mechanics off just a tick. But this guy still throws upwards of 97-98 mph and when he’s on, the ball is moving really well.
“It’s tougher for younger guys to go through struggles than it is for veterans who have been through it before, he just put up such great numbers that the expectations for him are so high.”