A’s: Late HRs give Oakland win after it strikes out 16 times
SEATTLE — Amazing what happens when a ball hits a bat.
It sure beats the alternative of swinging and missing.
For most of Wednesday evening, the A’s seemed destined to shatter their franchise record of 19 strikeouts — they K’d 16 times in seven innings — but then they started making contact off Seattle’s bullpen, and their world turned.
Jed Lowrie hit a game-tying two-run home run in the eighth, and Mark Canha’s solo homer in the ninth decided Oakland’s extraordinary 3-2 victory over the Mariners.
Evidently, the A’s chances vastly improved once Seattle lefty James Paxton exited after seven scoreless innings. He struck out 16 (14 swinging and two looking) but didn’t return for the eighth because he was at 105 pitches.
Paxton threw 80 strikes, a ridiculous 31 of which were swings and misses. His previous strikeout high was 10. Chad Pinder, Khris Davis and Stephen Piscotty fanned three times apiece.
“Paxton was just gross today,” Canha said. “I haven’t faced him in a couple of years, and trying to hit that heater was tough. It was kind of like a sigh of relief in the dugout when he finally got out of there because he was rolling.”
Canha added a bat flip for good measure and explained, “It’s a heat-of-the-moment kind of thing. When you hit a ninth-inning homer, you get a little adrenaline pumping.”
Righty Juan Nicasio replaced Paxton, so A’s manager Bob Melvin pinch-hit Matt Joyce for Pinder, and Joyce doubled. Lowrie homered to right-center, his eighth of the year, and Canha’s homer was off closer Edwin Diaz, who had given up one run before Wednesday.
“You look at Nicasio and Diaz, I mean, these guys have incredible numbers,” Lowrie said. “But the way Paxton was throwing the ball tonight, just about anybody was better.”
Neither Nicasio nor Diaz struck out a batter, so the A’s record is intact. They struck out 19 times in 1997 in Seattle (thank you, Randy Johnson) and again last May 30 in Cleveland.
“It didn’t look too good for us early. I lost count of strikeouts on my card,” Melvin said. “There were a lot of them, so I quit counting.”
Brett Anderson was a welcome addition to the A’s rotation, and he did exactly what Melvin desired. The lefty pitched deep into the game and kept Oakland within striking distance.
Called up from Triple-A Nashville for his first A’s start since 2013, Anderson threw 61⁄3 efficient innings. The two runs he allowed came in the third inning, the first on former A’s infielder Ryon Healy’s home run.
Ichiro Suzuki, perhaps playing one of his final bigleague games — it’s speculated in these parts he won’t be with the Mariners much longer — walked, took second on a groundout and scored on Jean Segura’s single.
Anderson gave up three hits through six innings but gave up two more in the seventh and was pulled. Ryan Dull got the final two outs to keep it a 2-0 game.
“He was pretty impressive, 16 strikeouts,” Anderson said of Paxton. “It might take four or five starts for me to get 16 strikeouts, and he did it in one game.”
Blake Treinen was credited with the win after escaping bases-loaded jams in both the eighth and ninth innings. The game ended when Segura grounded to third baseman Matt Chapman.
“Good win to be a part of for my first start,” Anderson said.