A’s: After blowing late lead, 6-run 8th tops K.C.
What was rounding into an ugly tale about Santiago Casilla’s propensity for denying Chris Smith his first-ever win as a starter did a U-turn into an A’s comeback story Tuesday night at the Coliseum.
After a hideous top of the eighth in which Oakland relievers allowed three homers, the A’s s responded with six runs in the bottom of the inning and screeched away with a 10-8 victory over the Royals.
“That was awesome, man. I’m so proud of these guys,” said right fielder Matt Joyce, who provided the winning blow with two outs in the eighth. “It would be really easy to just roll over and give that game away against a tough relief pitcher. We did a great job, man, coming back there and it was a lot of fun to be a part of.”
The A’s opened the inning with four consecutive hits off Joakim Soria: a double by Jed Lowrie, a single by Khris Davis (hit No. 499 of his career), an RBI single by Ryon Healy and an RBI single by Matt Olson, cutting Kansas City’s lead to two.
Matt Chapman and pinchhitter Chad Pinder struck out, however, and left-hander Mike Minor walked pinch-hitter Rajai Davis to load the bases.
Joyce, a left-handed hitter, whacked a 1-0 fastball to left, a bases-clearing double that gave Oakland the lead.
Marcus Semien sent in Joyce with a base hit, providing an insurance run.
“Really gutsy comeback,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “A lot of young guys putting together some really good at-bats. The momentum went from us to them to us again and that’s really the culture we want to set with them: We’re going to come back. We’re going to fight. If we go down, we’re going to go down bleeding.”
That offset the Royals’ big comeback. With the A’s up by a run entering the eighth, Casilla walked Alex Gordon — batting under .200 — to start the inning, then gave up a two-run homer to No. 9 batter Drew Butera, Butera’s first homer since May 18. Blake Treinen replaced Casilla and gave up a two-run homer by Eric Hosmer and a solo blast by Mike Moustakas.
Over the past 28 games, Oakland relievers have blown eight saves and allowed 14 homers in 992⁄3 innings. Casilla’s blown save was his seventh.
Recently, and this is hard to do, the A’s starters have been the bigger issue, with a 7.46 ERA over the previous 17 games, and initially it looked like more of the same Tuesday. Smith walked leadoff man Whit Merrifield, hit Lorenzo Cain and started off 3-0 on Hosmer before he hit a tworun double. Melky Cabrera added an RBI single, making it four batters, no outs and three runs in.
“Four batters? It seemed like forever,” Smith said. “I don’t know. I might have blacked out. ... That happened fast. I didn’t know what I was throwing.”
Smith said he finally threw one fastball where he wanted — and from there, he was outstanding, allowing only one more single before exiting to applause with one out in the sixth. He struck out three and walked just the one batter.
Smith’s last and only win in the majors came as a Boston reliever, on June 24, 2008. He left in line for the victory July 18 against Tampa Bay, but Casilla, then the closer, allowed a twoout game-tying single in the ninth and then the go-ahead single, too.
Smith “has a lot of moxie,” Melvin said. “We need to get him a win.”
Oakland hit three homers, too, just not all in one inning. Joyce hit his fourth leadoff shot of the season; leading off the second, Olson hit his fourth home run in five games. Khris Davis crunched a two-run blast in the third, his 33rd homer and his 85th and 86th RBIs.