Oakland masters lategame tension

A’S 6, RAYS 3

Lou Trivino checked the card in his back pocket. He lifted his cap and wiped his forehead. Only after a bluff to second did he deliver the curveball to Mike Brosseau that finished the eighth inning. It let the drama build. Meetings of the A’s and Rays this year have featured plenty of it.

The score of a 63 A’s win Saturday masked another taut affair. It was the first of their six games decided by more than two runs. The Rays still put the tying run on base in the ninth inning. The A’s still became the first majorleague team this season to 21 wins.

It required two escape acts by Trivino.

The A’s led 43 in the eighth when manager Bob Melvin summoned Trivino to face Brosseau with two Rays on and two out.

Trivino’s previous outing spiraled. Against Toronto, he inherited a lead in the eighth

inning and allowed five runs. Brosseau, on Friday night, broke up Sean Manaea’s bid for a nohitter.

Trivino got ahead 12 in the count, then threw a 22 curveball. Brosseau took it for strike three.

Oakland scored twice in the eighth, but even that lead became tenuous. The Rays loaded the bases with no outs in the ninth on a single, a hitbypitch and a walk. Trivino induced a harmless Yandy Diaz flyout, struck out Brandon Lowe and retired Joey Wendle on a groundout.

“It ended up being a real positive for him,” Melvin said of Trivino. “Because when you have a tough outing and you go back out there and challenges pop up again and you get through it, you’re better for it. We all know what kind of stuff Lou’s had. He’s had a terrific year to this point. He had one tough game the other day and he had to get the cobwebs off that. I think that outing will do it for him.”

After six straight games facing lefthanded starters, the A’s finally saw a righthander Saturday. It offered little reprieve. Tyler Glasnow faced 23 batters and struck out 11. The Rays fireballer allowed just two hits against a lineup featuring six lefthanded batters. Both, though, were home runs. After Mark Canha drew a leadoff walk in the first, Seth Brown drove the first pitch he saw from Glasnow, a 96 mph fastball, to center for a tworun shot. It followed Brown’s walkoff blast Friday night and was his fifth in 26 games since being called up. That is the power Brown displayed in 2019 at TripleA, where he totaled 37 homers in 112 games, before spending September with Oakland but failing to homer in 75 atbats.

Brown added a twoout RBI single through the shift in the seventh inning. It ensured Oakland still led after Mike Zunino lined an RBI single off Jake Diekman in the Rays’ eighth. Melvin said Brown has “been unbelievable — last two days if we don’t have him, probably a good chance that we don’t win the game. He’s stepped up big for us, not only in these last two games but since he’s been here.”

Catcher Austin Allen also homered on a firstpitch fastball from Glasnow in the second inning. Allen pointed to the stands as he neared third base; his parents and wife were at the game, their first time at the Coliseum after being unable to watch him play in person in 2020. Behind the plate, Allen helped starter Frankie Montas, who allowed two singles through five innings. He generated seven swingandmisses on his fastball and finished four of six strikeouts with it.

“I was mixing all my pitches today,” Montas said. “So that kind of gave the fastball a little extra life, and I feel like I took advantage of it.”

Montas fired a 98 mph fastball by Randy Arozarena to end the fifth inning and shimmied his shoulders.

The sixth tripped his rhythm.

Austin Meadows doubled to center. Lowe hit a tworun homer to right. After Joey Wendle’s oneout single, Melvin went to his bullpen.

Yusmeiro Petit retired two batters to finish the sixth — opponents are 5for40 (.125) with men on base against him this season. Diekman stranded a runner left by Petit in the seventh before ceding his jam to Trivino in the eighth.

“Ain’t nobody sweating Lou,” Montas said. “He’s good at what he’s doing. And you know he’s going to go out there and do his best.”

Daniel Shirey / Getty Images A’s catcher Austin Allen’s solo homer in the second was his first hit since his callup Tuesday.