Sports: Grand slam puts A’s ahead in opener of Bay Bridge Series.
Semien grand slam sparks A’s to comeback win to open annual showdown
The A’s Marcus Semien is greeted at the plate after hitting a grand slam off Giants relief pitcher George Kontos in the sixth inning of the Bay Bridge Series opener at the Oakland Coliseum on Monday. Bay Area product Paul Blackburn started for the A’s and gave up five runs but left the game with the lead. Matt Cain started for the Giants and gave up only two runs, but the Giants bullpen couldn’t keep Oakland off the scoreboard in an 8-5 A’s win.
Marcus Semien, the longest-tenured member of the A’s with Sonny Gray now a Yankee, said he was ready to lead his younger teammates by example with his play on the field.
If they can all follow the one he set on Monday night, the A’s are in pretty good shape for the future. Semien blasted a 1-1 pitch from George Kontos over the left field wall for a grand slam in the sixth inning to put the A’s ahead 6-3 in an eventual 8-5 victory over the Giants in front of 38,391 fans at the Coliseum for the first game of the Bay Bridge Series. It was Semien’s fourth home run of the season and his first grand slam with the A’s. The slam that sent A’s fans into hysteria was set up earlier in the inning after a pair of walks from Bruce Maxwell and Matt Joyce, and a pinch double by Rajai Davis off the left field wall. Semien, a Cal-Berkeley product, said he attended many A’s-Giants games as a youth. While both teams are not having the seasons they have had when meeting in past years, he said hitting the grand slam was still like a dream come true.
“Every kid’s dream who grew up here was to play in this series,” Semien said. “We’re both in last place but it still felt like a playoff atmosphere. To be able to hit one in a series like this is pretty cool.” Even with the down year the Giants are having, manager Bob Melvin said the series is important for the club’s younger players to participate in to get a sense of what it feels like to play on a big stage. “Any time we play these guys it’s different. You throw (the records) out when you play the Giants,” Melvin said. “We don’t get too many packed houses here and that kind of atmosphere usually means the Giants are in town. Especially for our younger guys, they need to know what it means to play these guys and what it’s all about. They got a good taste tonight.” Rookie Paul Blackburn surrendered a run in the first and two in the fourth, but he was able to limit the damage both times and appeared to be settling in. After facing the minimum for the next two innings, the Brentwood native ran into more trouble in the seventh. Blackburn allowed a lead off double to Carlos Moncrief and a single to Gorkys Hernandez, with a fielder’s choice sandwiched in between to put runners on first and third with only one out. The single by Hernandez put Blackburn at 98 pitches and was enough to summon Melvin from the dugout to make a change.
Daniel Coulombe came on in relief and made things a little tighter as he only recorded one out and allowed two runs to shrink the A’s lead to a run. In danger of a total meltdown, Liam Hendriks came on and struck out Buster Posey to strand runners on first and third and keep Oakland ahead 6-5.
The two runs in the inning were charged to Blackburn, giving him five runs allowed on the night. Although it was the most runs he has allowed this season, Blackburn still felt good about pitching into the seventh. Having grown up a Giants fan and attending both Giants and A’s games as a kid, Blackburn was thrilled to get his first opportunity to finally pitch in the series. “It was a cool experience,” Blackburn said. “You could hear a bunch of booing and cheering. There was a lot of energy throughout the building tonight and it was a lot of fun.”
The A’s added a couple of insurance runs in the eighth on a two-run single by Ryon Healy. Blake Treinen came on in the ninth inning and recorded the final three outs to earn his first save with the A’s.
• In addition to the Sonny Gray trade, the A’s made another move on Monday. Infielder Adam Rosales was sent to the Arizona Diamondbacks in exchange for minor league pitcher Jefferson Mejia. Rosales, who has had multiple stints with the A’s, became a favorite in the clubhouse for his team-first mentality. For that reason, manager Bob Melvin said he would not be surprised if Rosales found his way back with the club in the future.
Chad Pinder rejoined the club off the disabled list and Melvin believes he could fill the role of superutility man that was previously occupied by Rosales. “Right now he’s a guy that can play anywhere, but we’ll see where he ends up,” Melvin said. “This is a guy who’s pretty productive. I’m sure he would love to settle into one spot and be an every day guy but it’s nice to have a guy that can play everywhere. There aren’t many guys that can do that.”
While Rosales did not receive much playing time over the past month, Melvin said he expects Pinder to find himself in the lineup a bit more often. • Opening day starter Kendall Graveman will return to the starting rotation on Thursday at AT&T Park for the final game of the Bay Bridge Series. Graveman went 2-2 with a 3.83 ERA in eight starts for the A’s this season before landing on the disable list with a strained shoulder.