After a pair of shutouts, Giants respond
OAKLAND >> Brandon Crawford hit a grand slam, Chadwick Tromp and Darin Ruf added two-run homers, and the San Francisco Giants prevented the Oakland Athletics from clinching the AL West title at home with a 14-2 victory Sunday.
The Giants earned their first win in six tries during this year’s Bay Bridge Series.
Oakland, already into the playoffs for a third straight season, needed a win or a loss by the rival Astros to secure their first division crown since 2013. Houston won at home against the Diamondbacks. The A’s are off today and can clinch their first division title since 2007 with an Astros loss in Seattle tonight.
Jake Lamb hit a two-run single in the sixth for Oakland’s lone scoring on an uncharacteristically quiet day.
The win left the Giants tied with Cincinnati and Milwaukee for the National League’s second-wild card spot, all just a half-game behind Philadelphia. San Francisco finishes with eight games at home in the next seven days, starting tonight against the Rockies.
Tyler Anderson (3-3) — ejected in the third inning
Thursday against the Mariners — struck out four over 5 2/3 innings pitching Sunday on shorter rest so Johnny Cueto could get an extra day.
Tromp connected in the third for the Giants’ first runs of the series, then Ruf the next inning against A’s lefty Mike Minor (1-6), who was coming off a victory in his first start with Oakland. Tromp also had an RBI single during his three-hit day as San Francisco produced 15 hits to five by the A’s.
Ruf added a two-run single in the eighth as the Giants snapped a three-game winning streak for Oakland (33-20) following consecutive 6-0 shutouts. Luis Basabe got his first career RBI with a single in a three-run ninth.
AVOIDING A SWEEP >> The Giants scored their secondmost runs of the season behind a 23-5 win at Col- orado on Sept. 1. They won for the third time in eight games after being held to no more than one run in each of the five defeats during this stretch.
San Francisco, which is 10-17 on the road, was outscored 44-30 in the six games versus Oakland in 2020.
GOOD GUYS >> A’s infielder Tony Kemp and his old college teammate at Vanderbilt, injured Giants right fielder Mike Yastrzemski, received the Bill Rigney “Good Guy” awards from the local chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. MENGDEN UPDATE >> A’s RHP Daniel Mengden was designated for assignment after being medically cleared and reinstated from the
COVID-19 injured list following a positive test from Aug. 28. He has been asymptomatic throughout and resumed throwing off a mound at the club’s San Jose alternate site in recent days.