Sports: A’s walk off over White Sox, 3-2.
Pinder’s dash caps A’s series sweep
Oakland Coliseum’s vast foul territory has its pits and perks.
Sunday afternoon, the A’s home turf helped deliver the team a 3-2, walk-off win to seal a series sweep of the Chicago White Sox.
Here are three takeaways. UNFAVORABLE CHALLENGES AND REDEMPTION INNINGS >> The moment crew chief Larry Vanover took off his headset and pumped his fist out, it looked like the A’s hot streak would trip over a blip.
Matt Chapman had just executed a Matrix-like side-belly slide, evading White Sox catcher James McCann’s swipe by a hair on home plate on Khris Davis’ high, deep sacrifice
fly into foul territory down the right field line. The umpire called Chapman out — the big board suggested otherwise — and the replay center in New York City hadn’t seen enough to flip the call. The score remained tied 2-2 to end the eighth. A’s manager Bob Melvin was hot, so was the home crowd.
“It’s frustrating obviously, especially in a situation like that with the game winning run there,” A’s utilityman Chad Pinder said. “Obviously we’ve all been on top step twice in the past week really anticipating (the umpire) to come out and say safe, and neither time we’ve gotten that call. But it’s got to be 100 percent.”
The disappointment was worsened because it felt like déja vú; Chapman was called out upon review in another bang-bang sequence at home plate in an eventual extra-inning loss to the Minnesota Twins last week.
But, unlike the Twins loss, the A’s would exact revenge the very next inning.
Pinder led off the ninth with a quick single and Ramon Laureano — who’d tied the score in the seventh with his 18th home run of the season —
chopped a ground ball just far enough to shortstop Jose Rondon’s left to force a wild throw.
The ball rolled far enough away from the action in the ample foul territory for Pinder to score easily to secure the walk-off win.
“We’re playing pretty good, playing with a lot of confidence we think we’re going to win,” Melvin said. “It’s good to grind one out in the end here.” FORTIFYING FOR A PLAYOFF RUN >> The A’s (53-41) are 12 games over .500 and in sole possession of the second wild card spot, a half game up on the Cleveland Indians and six games behind the Houston Astros in the AL West. They’ve won 10 of their last 12 games.
The addition of Homer Bailey earlier Sunday in a trade with the Kansas City Royals to bolster a rotation riddled with injuries and rehab assignments, weeks before the July 31 trade deadline, was an encouraging nudge that the whole organization will take steps to navigate a crowded postseason race. And that the division title might not be out of reach.
“I think it’s going to be a fight,” A’s general manager David Forst said before the game. “Just looking at wild card (race): Tampa, Boston and Cleveland… and Texas. We’ve got really good teams to go up against and it’s a huge climb to get to Houston, we’ve known for a while now that the division goes through the Astros.”
Bailey isn’t a top get, but the A’s have a history of plucking undervalued talent. Bailey had a rocky start to the season that inflated his ERA to an off-putting 4.80 in 18 starts.
But Forst and his team were intrigued by Bailey’s past eight starts — a span in which he produced a 3.35 ERA with 37 strikeouts.
And the acquisition was notably low-risk. The Los Angeles Dodgers are on the hook for Bailey’s $23 million salary for 2019 and the A’s will pay the prorated salary of $250,000. The Royals signed him for the $555,000 minimum this offseason. Bailey was acquired by the Dodgers from the Reds in a salary dump (part of the Yasel Puig deal) over the winter and released the following day.
BRETT ANDERSON DELIVERS AGAIN >> The rotation got a potential boost Sunday morning, but Anderson proved again why the A’s rotation was able to tread water and help this team excellerate.
He held the White Sox to two runs over 6 2/3 innings, held short of a full seven when center fielder Laureano lost a fly ball in the sun on what should have been the final out of the inning. But, like much of the league, Anderson has struggled with the home run ball as of late.
White Sox rookie Eloy Jimenez hit a “bad” changeup for the 10th home run Anderson has given up over his past 11 starts.