Walkoff HR accents Manaea nohit bid
Sean Manaea was perfect through six innings and the A’s lefty took a nohitter into the eighth against Tampa Bay at the Coliseum on Friday night.
Outfielder Seth Brown ultimately stole some of Manaea’s thunder, not that Manaea minded one bit.
With two outs in the ninth, Brown launched a Jeffrey Springs pitch over the wall in right. Brown’s fourth homer of the season gave the A’s a 21 walkoff win, ending the Rays’ winning streak at five games.
“To have that happen tonight is something that I’ve played out in my mind ever since I was a little kid,” said Brown, whose pinchhit RBI single in the sevenh accounted for Oakland’s first run. “That’s every little kid’s dream … to do something like that.”
Manaea nearly fulfilled a pitcher’s dream. After retiring the first 18 Tampa Bay hitters, he walked Randy Arozarena to begin the seventh inning. Manaea set down the next three hitters. So he still had the pos
sibility of recording the second nohitter of his career. Manaea threw a nono against the Red Sox on April 21, 2018.
Manaea’s bid for a second nohitter was not to be this Friday evening. Mike Brosseau led off the eighth by drilling a double to rightcenter. One batter after Manaea lost his nohit bid, the A’s had lost their lead when Mike Zunino singled to leftcenter to bring home Brosseau for a 11 game. After Manaea struck out Kevin Kiermaier, A’s manager Bob Melvin pulled Manaea for Yusmeiro Petit.
The home crowd of 5,058 gave Manaea a deserved ovation and he doffed his cap on his way to the dugout.
Manaea gave up the one run on those two hits in his 71⁄3 innings. He walked one and struck out 10. Fiftyseven of his 81 pitches were strikes.
In his postgame Zoom news conference, Manaea said he has progressed quite a bit in the three years since nohitting Boston.
“My stuff ’s definitely evolved since then,” said Manaea, who lowered his ERA to 3.07. “I just had a lot more conviction, a lot more energy, I guess mound presence. Just going at guys. I just trust my stuff, knowing that I can get these guys out.”
Manaea struck out the side in the third: Kiermaier went down looking, and Willy Adames and Brett Phillips swung at strike three. After three straight K’s in the third, Manaea needed a mere four pitches to record three outs in the fourth: Arozarena grounded to second, Manuel Margot bounced to third and Brandon Lowe went the 43 route to end the don’tblink inning.
The Rays’ fifth consisted of a Yandy Diaz grounder to short, a Brosseau strikeout and a Zunino pop to short.
The fans really started to get into it in the sixth. Manaea retired Kiermaier on a flyball to right, then struck out Adames and Phillips, each swinging. Through six innings, Manaea had thrown a mere 58 pitches.
After Manaea walked Arozarena to begin the seventh, the lefty got the next three hitters. Lowe came close to getting not only the Rays’ first hit but giving them the lead. He sent a high drive to rightcenter that right fielder Stephen Piscotty grabbed in front of the Kaiser Permanente sign for the second out of the inning. Diaz bounced into a forceout for Manaea’s 21st out.
Petit and Jake Diekman (20) combined for the final five outs. The Rays mustered only three