Lowrie’s HR is 3rd straight walk-off
The announced crowd of 10,292 — let’s say 7,000 — came to the A’s game bored with the idea of watching the Warriors roll to another win on television. Fans came to see the Oakland baseball club try for a third-straight walk-off win Monday night.
And they were rewarded, when Jed Lowrie sent a change-up deep into the right-field bleachers with two outs in the 11th inning Monday night, his second homer of the evening, giving the A’s a 3-2 win over the Angels.
“Momentum carries over,” Lowrie said. “Coming to the ballpark is more fun, after you do this two, now three times.”
This the first time that Oakland has won three straight games in walk-off fashion since June 2004.
“It certainly never gets old,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Once you get one, there is a carryover feeling the next day. And every inning we
came into the dugout, we had a good feeling about it.”
The A’s had come from behind to tie the game 2-2, thanks to solo home runs from Lowrie in the fourth inning and Trevor Plouffe in the fifth.
Liam Hendricks got the win after two scoreless innings of relief, capping off a night when A’s pitchers didn’t give up a run after starter Kendall Graveman gave up two in the first inning.
The fans on hand were treated to the third pitching matchup this season — all doozies — between Graveman and the Angels’ Ricky Nolasco. Oakland won the first game of the series despite the middle of its order going 0-for-12 and Angels relievers retiring 13 straight A’s batters prior to Lowrie’s game-winner.
Nolasco had the A’s guessing wrong most of the night, striking out 10 batters in seven innings. He has a 2.98 with 18 strikeouts and four walks in 181⁄3 innings against Oakland this season.
Graveman, making his third start since coming back from a strained right shoulder, got comfortable after the first inning. Yunel Escobar opened the game with an infield single literally off of Graveman, and, two batters later, Luis Valbuena used his best golf swing to drive a sinker over the centerfield fence.
After that, Graveman settled down and didn’t give up another run in his seven innings. He only had one 1-2-3 inning, but he had his changeup working well, striking out six Angels, who were without the injured Mike Trout (hamstring).
“He went to off-speed stuff more than he has in the past one and a half years-plus,” Melvin said.
Graveman didn’t look like the guy who was 0-2 with a 7.71 ERA since coming off the disabled list. He was very relaxed, and now owns a 2.84 ERA with 17 strikeouts and three walks in 19 innings this season against the Angels.
Graveman didn’t get much help from the middle of the A’s lineup. Khris Davis, Yonder Alonso and Ryon Healy went a combined 0-for-12 with seven strikeouts.
Davis, who struck out four times in his four at-bats, is now 11-for-65 (.169) in his last 19 games.
History was made for fans who stuck out it. Valbuena, a most-confident journeyman, orchestrated what may have been the first-ever bat flip after a leadoff single. It will be forgotten, as Hendriks got out of the inning.