Canha saves sweep of Astros
OAKLAND » A day that began with devastating news that Oakland A’s shortstop Elvis Andrus fractured his left fibula scoring the game-winning run in Saturday’s game ended on a positive note with a walk-off victory to seal a sweep of the Houston Astros.
The Oakland A’s gave the final home crowd of the season a walkoff to remember. Mark Canha’s single with the bases loaded, game tied in the bottom of the ninth sent the A’s to a 4-3 win at home Sunday afternoon in front of a crowd of 12,228.
It wasn’t a home run, but Canha flipped his bat, anyway, in front of the Astros dugout in celebration.
“One last day of bat flippin’ season for the people,” Canha said.
After getting swept in four games by the Seattle Mariners earlier this week, the A’s are in complete desperation mode, well behind the eight ball in the wild card standings with now six games left to play.
“We’re getting big hits when we need to, at this point. Last series we didn’t have much offensively, not much at all,” Melvin said. “There’s a lot of desperation in what we’re doing right now. Not that it wasn’t in the Seattle series, but it’s more in our faces right now.”
What’s left is one more road trip with three games against the Mariners and three against the Astros. Before the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox game ended on Sunday night, the A’s sat three games back of a second wild card spot. They can’t afford losses, they can only hope a hero emerges each day.
“Sets us up as good as we can possibly set ourselves up,” Canha said. “I think we needed to grab some momentum and good feels and to sweep a good team like that feels really good. Especially given last home stand and what’s on the line. We’re going to keep fighting. I think everyone is pulling in the same direction, so it’s good to see.”
The bottom of the ninth started with pinch hitter Sean Murphy, who led off the inning with a single off Astros reliever Ryne Stanek. Then Vimael Machin’s sacrifice bunt wound up a bunt single with a mad, unsuccessful scramble for the ball by the Astros. A passed ball advanced both runners into scoring position with no outs. Starling Marte’s fly ball didn’t go deep enough for Murphy to score, and Matt Olson was intentionally walked to load the bases for Canha’s heroics against Astros closer Ryan Pressly.
The walk-off was made possible by some luck and a stellar pitching performance from Lou Trivino in the top of the inning. After a rough stretch in August, Trivino climbed his way back into the ninth inning role and collected two strikeouts sandwiched by a bloop single from Jose Siri.
The Astros looked to
threaten and extend the inning when Bregman popped a single into shallow right field. Right fielder Seth Brown rifled the ball to Kemp, who saw Siri inexplicably rounding third base in an attempt to score. Kemp threw home to Murphy, who tagged Siri out to
preserve the tie. A replay review confirmed the call.
“It kinda scared the hell out of me when it happened. I took a peak when he was getting to third base and I saw the third base coach holding him, then heard a bunch of commotion and thought, ‘Oh god, what’s
happening?” Canha said. “Thank god Tony had the wherewithal to get the ball in quickly and he made a great throw and put it right on the money and that guy can fly. If he doesn’t put a perfect play on that one, it could have been a bad situation for us.”