WALK-OFF WIN
A’s tie score in ninth after video review, Olson wins it with homer in 10th
OAKLAND >> Matt Olson thought he had a walk-off home run earlier this week that ended up bouncing off the wall in an extra-inning loss. He made sure that didn’t happen two games in a row.
After an exhilarating comeback in the ninth to get the game to extra innings, Olson took Tony Sipp to a full count before unloading on a slider. He knew this one was gone, and even took a few seconds to admire it as it went over the right field wall and sent the electric crowd at the Coliseum into a frenzy as the A’s walked it off in the tenth for a 4-3 victory over the Astros, keeping their hopes of overtaking Houston for the division lead this weekend alive now just one game back.
“Definitely one of the cooler things I’ve done in my career,” Olson said of his first career walk off home run. “The most juiced I’ve gotten in my career, for sure. After striking out with runners on first and second and no outs earlier I wanted to get another chance and luckily I did something with it.”
In a mid-August game that felt an awful lot like playoff baseball, nine innings weren’t enough to decide it.
The Astros (74-48) ap-
peared headed to a victory when the A’s seemingly had the tying run thrown out at home plate in the ninth. Nick Martini doubled to the right field corner off Hector Rondon, sending pinch-runner Ramon Laureano from first to home as Carlos Correa took a relay throw from Josh Reddick and fired it to catcher Martin Maldonado. Laureano slid head-first into home and was called out, but immediately rose up and urged A’s manager Bob Melvin to challenge the play.
Most of the 25,535 fans in attendance at the Coliseum collectively held their breath as they awaited the ruling, and after about 3 ½ minutes, the place went to a frenzy as home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez signaled the safe sign, overturning the original call as the A’s had tied the score 3-3.
Laureano said he knew he was going to try for home right off the crack of the bat after seeing how far off the right field line Reddick was playing. The replays appeared razor close, even on the big screens, but Laureano said he was confident he was safe the whole time.
“I beat the tag,” Laureano said. “He blocked the plate but I knew I beat the throw. I knew right away.”
Melvin thought Alex Bregman may have interfered with Laureano as he was rounding third base, causing the speedy outfielder to lose balance, but he also thought Laureano was safe after watching on the big screen.
“I thought his hand got in there. It didn’t look like (Maldonado) tagged him where potentially the out call would have been made,” Melvin said. “I’m probably a little biased, but that’s what I saw.”
Much was made about the low attendance numbers throughout the A’s previous series against the
Seattle Mariners earlier in the week, which barely cracked 10,000 each game. Olson was one of the many players who took to social media to make a plea for more fans to show up for this crucial series against Houston.
They showed up Friday, and the club felt the difference.
“I thank the fans that came out. They don’t realize how big of an advantage that is to have an extra 15,000 people there. It makes a world of a difference,” Olson said. “You get in those big situations and the crowd gets loud and (the Astros) start to feel more pressure. We get amped up. It’s big to have everybody here behind us.”
Matt Chapman smacked a two-out single to right field off Charlie Morton in the fifth to tie it up 2-2, but that didn’t faze the Astros
much. They wasted no time taking the lead right back in the sixth as former A’s fan favorite Josh Reddick singled to left off Lou Trivino and drove in Marwin Gonzalez.
Trivino has been a rookie sensation for most of the year, but his last several outings have been concerning. The right-hander is getting hit around more often, posting a 7.71 ERA over his last six outings. He’s walked four batters over his last 4 2/3 innings pitched.
Edwin Jackson did his best to keep the A’s in the game.
His two runs allowed both came on solo homers by Alex Bregman and Martin Maldonado, as he managed to pitch out of trouble a couple of times before departing after five innings with just the two runs allowed on five hits and two walks with two strikeouts on 89 pitches.
• The A’s will hold a pregame celebration in honor of the 2002 A’s team that won 20 games in a row Saturday, but a few notable players will be missing. Miguel Tejada, Eric Chavez, Barry Zito, and manager Art Howe were among the names missing from the list of attendees.
Chavez is currently serving as the Angels Triple-A manager, while Miguel Tejada is in the Dominican Republic. Howe canceled last-minute due to a funeral.