A’s battle back in Game 3
Pinder home run, Hendriks heroics salvage Oakland’s season in ALDS
Before Chad Pinder hit the home run to save the A’s season, before Liam Hendriks nailed down the victory with three innings in relief, Ramón Laureano had something to say Wednesday.
Something that fired Pinder up before his three-run homer tied the score in the seventh inning and sent the A’s on their way to a 9-7 victory over the Houston Astros in Game 3 of the American League Division Series at Dodger Stadium.
“This ain’t over,” Laureano told his teammates. “This ain’t our last game. And we aren’t going to let it be our last game. We’ve been through too much, had too many good things happen through the season to leave here and get swept.”
Game 3 had three dramatic lead changes in a roller- coaster ride of an afternoon.
Pinder’s 360-foot blast in the seventh was the shortest of the 18 home runs in the series but was
by far the most impactful. The three-run shot to right erased a 7- 4 deficit and gave Oakland the momentum needed to see another game.
An anchor in the A’s clubhouse despite no defined position, Pinder was just hoping to get something in the air to capitalize on having runners on the corners and nobody out. Something to break through a barrier that kept the A’s from producing in this series when opportunities arrived.
To Pinder’s surprise, his opposite-field drive drifted just far enough to clear the right-field fence, beyond an outstretched Kyle Tucker’s glove, and keep the A’s alive.
Pinder thrives when he can calm himself in big moments. It helped that Mar
cus Semien and Tommy La Stella singled to set the table before Pinder stepped into the batter’s box.
But Pinder could still hear Laureano’s words.
“’ You struck a chord with me, man,’’ Pinder told his teammate after the win.
When Pinder later spoke in a video conference with reporters, the third baseman added, “I just got chills thinking about it. That was a pivotal moment for us, for sure. I just keep getting chills all over my body because that’s huge. We needed someone to step up.”
Until then, Oakland seemed destined for the short end in another round of Home Run Derby.
Game 3 started as the previous two games had, with the A’s taking an early lead. This one came courtesy of four solo home runs. La Stella started the slugfest with a 415-foot shot to center that put Oakland in front 1- 0 in the first.
The Astros, the designated home team for the first time in the series, claimed the advantage in the bottom of the first. José Altuve hit a solo shot to tie the score and then, with runners on the corners, La Stella’s weak throw from second on a potential inning- ending double play made it 2-1.
The A’s feasted a little on Houston starter José
Urquidy, who was hanging his breaking balls. Mark Canha, Matt Olson and Semien notched solo home runs to give the A’s a 4-2 edge.
Then, deflation.
A’s starter Jesús Luzardo had been rolling, getting ahead in counts and holding the Astros scoreless through three innings. Houston caught up to him in the fifth.