If you’ve been wondering what the Oakland A’s could do on Wednesday to beat the excitement of yesterday’s double shutout sweep, you’ve got your answer.
The A’s increased their win streak to 11 with a win over the Minnesota Twins to complete a sweep in their series at the Colosseum, but that doesn’t even begin to describe what we just saw. The two clubs hit each other’s pitching staff for over four hours, in a 10-inning thriller with several lead changes and seven homers, resulting in a 13-12 final score, which ended in a walk-off two-run error.
Relax, this may take a while to explain.
*** Pin wire # 1 | Pin wire # 2 | Pin wire # 3 ***
After last night’s quiet 1-0 final, both teams came out swinging this afternoon, and they all had answers to everything they threw at each other. For five innings, they had hit three homers each, both had scored a run on a wild pitch and the count was 7-7, with both starting pitchers long gone.
From there, the Twins rallied for three in the top of the sixth, and the A’s came back in the bottom half. Oakland’s rally response fell a point short, but they got it back in the 9th to force extras.
In the 10th inning, the closers of both teams got out for a second frame of work, protecting against the automatic runner on second base, and things didn’t go well for both pitchers. The A’s gave up a two-run homer, then the Twins blinked even harder, loaded the bases and then committed two errors on routine, potential game-ending grounders to effectively transfer the game to Oakland. The green-and-gold didn’t even score a hit in their winning rally of three unearned runs, but it all counts the same.
Act 1: Early fireworks
The first five innings set the mood. This wasn’t going to be a pitching game in between Frankie Montas and Cy Young runner-up Kenta Maeda. This was going to be a slugfest, and it might not be over until the last throw.
In the first, Josh Donaldson homered for an early lead, a 1-0 lead that now seems odd in hindsight. In the 2nd, Matt Olson suited him.
Then the A increased the offer. Two runners came on board, Elvis Andrus hit a house with a sharp single in the middle, and Ramon Laureano scored on a wild pitch to make it 3-1.
Minnesota answered in the 3rd with an RBI-single by Donaldson and a two-run dinger by Nelson Cruz to make it 4-3. But the A’s fell back to the right in the bottom of the inning with a double by Jed Lowrie and a two-run dinger from Olson.
Seth Brown followed by another two-run long ball to make it 7-4.
But Minnesota wouldn’t budge. Leading up to 5th, Cruz homered again, his second on the day as did Olson. JB Wendelken uncorks a wild pitch to get another house running, just like Maeda had done before. And then something new happened, as the A’s got the grounder they needed to end the inning with an intact lead, but second baseman Lowrie fluttered for an unearned run to tie the score. The Gemini hadn’t done that yet, but as foreshadowing, they would later.
After an action-packed day, we were only over five innings and nothing was decided at all. It was 7-7 that the 6th came in.
Act 2: Get on the link
The competition did not last long. The Twins were not fooled Sergio Romo’s sliders, providing a range of hard and soft contact that resulted in four hits and three runs. Oakland was immediately in a hole again.
Then they usually climbed back into the bottom of the 6th. Between some grounders and stolen bases, the A’s have runners on second and third base, Mark Canha and Andrus. Canha’s “single” was particularly happy, as luck didn’t smile at Donaldson on his return to his old Coliseum hot corner.
With two outs on the board, the Twins brought in a lefty reliever to turn Lowrie to the right side of the plate. The problem with that plan is that Lowrie might be an even better right hitter than left-handed, and he showed that by drilling a liner into the opening at the center right for a double. It was his second double of the game, one from each batter’s box.
Olson came up next and nearly completed the comeback. He threw the first pitch at 107.8 mph in the opening left center, but was a former winner of Platinum Glove Byron Buxton made a great diving catch to rob him and end the inning, stranding the potential tying run.
Can you imagine that the 10-9 score had held up and that catch was the difference in the game? You should tip your pet.
Buxton blocked the extra point
– Melissa Lockard (@melissalockard) April 21, 2021
But this was far from over. The A’s bided their time until the 9th and then stood out. Laureano reached when a pitch barely cut his baggy jersey, which was enough to start another rally. Olson immediately singled through the shift, such an explosion that it didn’t matter which defenders got in the way. The output speed was 110.7 mph, its fourth time over 100 today and the sharpest to date.
With one out on the plate, everyone Matt Chapman what to do was make some contact, anything but a strikeout, popout, or double play. It homered almost right down the line, but it landed a few yards, maybe inches off. Then he got the job done, with a liner to the left deep enough to drive Laureano home. Draw and eventually extra innings.
Act 3: The 10th inning
It amounted to a battle of closers. Neither came in fresh and both dealt with the new automatic runner on second base.
For Oakland, that meant Lou Trivino. He pitched on Tuesday-evening and had already started this game in the 9th and threw 25 pitches to get through that frame. He blew his lead in the 10th, but then Buxton struck again, this time with his bat. It was a 423-foot monster, and with a run-out speed of 111.0 mph, it was the hardest hit ball in a game with 21 pieces of three-digit contact.
Trivino got the next batter, and Deolis War came in to retire one more but the damage was already done. The A’s needed a comeback for the fourth time today.
They should be doing it against Twins closer Alex Colomeanyway, they had already caught him once today. Colome had also come in in the 9th, when his team was ahead 10-9, and smashed that safe chance. Can Oakland run a rerun a few minutes later?
It didn’t start well. The first batter flew out and the next struckout. Until their last chance.
But then Brown walked. And then Andrus walked, and suddenly the bases were loaded, with the highest rank in Canha.
For the first nine innings of this game, the Twins Donaldson held third base and Luis Arraez Second. But in the 10th, they’d lined up Donaldson as their auto-runner, and instead Travis Blankenhorn. The move made sense at the time, but it didn’t help in the end because Blankenhorn trotted home with a dinger anyway, making speed irrelevant. And then it went terribly wrong.
Canha waved on his second pitch and hit a dribbler to second base. After sitting on the bench for four hours watching this chaos unfold, Blankenhorn was suddenly in the thick of it, ramming the routine grounder. It could have ended the game there, but everyone was safe and a run was home. It was 12-11, still with the bases loaded.
Enter Laureano. He made five pitches on five pitches, and then, on Colome’s 49th offer of the day, Laureano hit a routine grounder to third base. But instead of former Fielding Bible winner Donaldson, the position was now manned by Arraez, fresh from nine innings on the other side of the diamond. He sent the pitch over the head of the first baseman, all the way to the backstop.
Laureano was safe, scoring two runs and the A’s grabbing the win from the jaws of defeat with an incredible walk-off win. Laureano’s grounder indeed turned out to be a game-ender, just not for the team it should have been.
That last throw really had arraez
– Eric Stephen (@ericstephen) April 22, 2021
The play-by-play for the inning: flyout, strikeout, walk, foul, foul. No hits. Three runs. A victory.
After the fifth game of the season, a fifth opening loss in a row, I started my summary with the question: “What can you really say?” I’m asking the same question now, but with the opposite connotation, after 11 consecutive wins including this instant classic.
Because what more can you really say? This club is absolutely enamored on top of its undeniable talent at the moment, and we should just enjoy this run while it lasts. Even if some of their roster is having a bad day, they’ve got enough to make up for it, and they’re now restoring all the talent for comebacks we’ve seen over the years. At the very least, they’ve put an end to doubts that they’re fighting here this season.
They will cool down and eventually even lose a match, but don’t try to explain until then. Just ride the wave.