First hit is walkoff for Laureano in A’s win over Tigers

OAKLAND — Ramon Laureano was unsure of how he’d feel for his first major league atbat, but he now knows how he feels after his first big league hit — pure exhilaration.

Laureano, who was called up from Triple-A Nashville Friday, saved his first hit for the perfect moment, a line drive single to right field in the 13th inning off Buck Farmer to walk it off for the Oakland A’s in Friday night’s 1-0 victory over the Detroit Tigers.

It completed an all-around heroic effort for Laureano, who also showed off a cannon of an arm as he gunned down Jose Iglesias at third base trying to advance on an errant throw to second by Jonathan Lucroy to end the top half of the 13th.

Laureano, 24, earned the call up by batting .297 with 14 home runs, 35 RBIs and 11 stolen bases over 64 games in what is his first year at the Triple-A level. But it’s the last month where Laureano has really started to turn it on, having hit .373 in the month of July with eight home runs, 18 RBIs and six stolen bases. He arrived to Oakland on an 11-game hit streak, with seven multi-hit performances over that stretch.

Nashville manager Fran Riordan pulled Laureano to the side during Wednesday’s game to inform him he had been called up to Oakland. Although Laureano said he was “shocked” at the time, he knew his numbers were deserving of a promotion.

“I’m just trying to stay patient and control what I can control. I’m just gonna play hard,” Laureano said. “I always get a little hot in July, so I knew if it was gonna come, it was gonna come now.”

It’s been a nice bounce back for Laureano, who had to miss the first month of the season after breaking his left hand March 12 in a spring training game on a pitch from San Francisco Giants reliever Roberto Gomez.

Laureano is considered an athletic outfielder with plusspeed and bat speed who has impressed the A’s with his defense this season. The majority of his playing time has come in right field this season, but Laureano can play all three outfield spots.

“We’ll start him in center and see how it goes,” A’s manag-

er Bob Melvin said. “He moves around really well and has a plus-arm. I think he leads Triple-A in assists. I knew at some point in time if he overcame the injury that he would be here.”

Once an Astros prospect expected to patrol the Houston outfield alongside George Springer and Kyle Tucker for years to come, struggles at Double-A made Laureano an expendable piece. He was traded to the A’s in November 2017 in exchange for minor league pitcher Brandon Bailey.

Although it was a tough 2017 for Laureano as he lost his status as one of the top prospects in Houston’s farm system, the outfielder said the poor season may end up a blessing in disguise when he looks back at it now that he’s getting a shot with the A’s.

“I knew everything was gonna be OK and I was gonna learn from it,” Laureano said. “It’s in the past so hopefully one day I can say that was the best year of my life.”

With the A’s facing left-handers in four of the next five games starting Friday night, Melvin said Laureano will get a good chance to show what he can do at the big league level with plenty of action over the next week.

Brett Anderson and Blaine Hardy were engaged in an unlikely pitchers’ duel on a Friday night where hits were hard to come by.

Anderson, holder of a 5.55 ERA entering the night, surely was not the first name that came to mind when trying to figure out who would be the pitcher to break the streak of short outings by A’s starters, but he became the first not named Sean Manaea to throw seven innings or more since Chris Bassitt completed seven June 9 against the Kansas City Royals. It had even been a while since Manaea completed seven, which came July 4 against the San Diego Padres.

The last time Anderson had gone at least seven innings? Oct. 1 2015, when he went 7 2/3 against the San Francisco Giants as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Anderson’s efficiency was the most impressive part. In what was his best outing of the season, the left-hander carried a perfect game against the Tigers into the sixth inning before finishing up allowing just two hits and a walk with two strikeouts on just 74 pitches over seven innings of work.

Hardy was virtually matching Anderson the whole way, taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning before Jed Lowrie registered the A’s first hit with a leadoff infield single. The no-hit bid was unlikely to last a full nine innings regardless, with the A’s having already made the left-hander work to throw 94 pitches through six.

The A’s had chances to walk it off in the ninth and 10th innings with runners on second base, but both rallies were squashed with inning-ending double plays.

After two rain delays, Twins hold off Royals, 6-4

MINNEAPOLIS — The Twins might not have as much thunder and lightning as they did a week ago, but for one night, they had plenty. Too much, in fact.

A noisy storm kept interrupting, and there was almost as much time spent drying the field as playing on it. But when the rains ceased, Minnesota's offense poured. Eight players in the Twins' lineup collected hits, the ninth drew three walks, and the Twins shrugged off the weather, the standings and the disappointment of a season gone awry by beating the Royals, 6-4 at Target Field.

As games go, it was a rainsoaked mess, but it was at least an effective rejoinder to Paul Molitor's pregame musing about the challenge ahead for his team, now absent Brian Dozier, Eduardo Escobar, and three pitchers, all jettisoned in exchange for minor leaguers.

After 21, Verlander shuts down Dodgers

LOS ANGELES — Kenley Jansen stewed inside the bullpen as the eighth inning unfolded, waiting to engage with a foe he had not seen in nine months. A distance of 275 days separated Friday and Game 7 of the World Series, when the Houston Astros captured a championship and denied Jansen a chance to atone for his rare lapses earlier in the Series.

Jansen remained unsatisfied in the first game of this weekend rematch, kept holstered in the bullpen as his teammates could not solve Justin Verlander in a 2-1 defeat. His offense could not provide him a game to save.

A night after scoring 21 runs, the Los Angeles Dodgers were reminded what an ace looks like. Verlander struck out 14 across 72/3 innings. He gave up a home run to Joc Pederson leading off the bottom of the first. From there, he overwhelmed his hosts with a cruel blend of overbearing fastballs and deceptive offspeed. The Dodgers (6150) never formulated an answer.

Alex Wood gritted through six innings without much command. He permitted two runs on four hits. He exited with a trainer after warming up for the seventh inning. He took the loss because his teammates were muffled by Verlander.