By Morris Phillips

Is it the worst way to lose a ballgame? For the A’s maybe not the worst way, but close.

But the best way to win a game?  For Orioles, you would have to say yes.

The Orioles trailed 3-1  in the sixth inning, rallied to tie, then won in the tenth on a dramatic, grand slam home run from Chris Davis on reliever Arnold Leon’s 3-2 pitch.  Davis’ blast dropped the A’s back in the American League cellar, while it propelled the Orioles in the right direction of a crowded field of AL playoff hoepfuls.

“You try to take advantage of the situations where we have runners in scoring positions and not do too much and just get one run in,” Davis said after the O’s 9th win in their last 12 games.  “And a lot of times when you’re just trying to do a little you get rewarded with a lot”

“I was trying to go away to get a ground-ball double play, but I didn’t execute very well the way I wanted to,” Leon said.

Leon allowed the first, two Orioles’ hitters to reach in the tenth, with tall, rangy Manny Machado just 90 feet away at third representing the go-ahead run.  So manager Bob Melvin elected to walk the bases loaded and have Leon face Adam Jones and Davis back-to-back in search of an out, then an inning-saving double play.

For Leon, the first part came easy.  Jones popped out to second base on the reliever’s second pitch.  The second part?  Leon’s still looking for that, as Davis went down and golfed a fastball at the knees over the 388 sign in left center.

It was Davis’ sixth career grand slam, and his third homer in the last four days.  Based on the location of the pitch, it also was a case of a talented hitter who’s also red-hot taking advantage of a pitcher who backed himself into a corner.

“Once you get two strikes you try to battle,” Davis said.  “He actually made a pretty good pitch.  I just thought I waited him out.  He threw me a really good curveball earlier in the at-bat.”

Kendall Graveman started for Oakland and cruised into the sixth inning with the lead, allowing just two hits.  But in the sixth, Gerardo Parra bunted his way on, busting up the starter’s rhythm.  With two outs, the O’s rallied as Davis, Jimmy Paredes and J.J. Hardy came up with consecutive hits off the A’s starter.

That quickly the A’s lead evaporated.  And their offense had as well as the A’s would go the final six innings without additional scoring.

Wei-Yin Chen started for Baltimore and struggled, allowing four hits and four walks in just five innings.  But with a run in and the bases loaded in the third, Chen escaped further damage by striking out Danny Valencia.  The next inning, Marcus Semien came up the RBI double, and stole third.  But Billy Burns struck out, and Semien was picked off third to end the inning.

It was the third straight start Chen failed to pitch into the sixth inning.

The A’s fell in extra innings for the seventh time in 2015.  The A’s lost their first six extra-inning contests before winning four straight.  Davis’ grand slam did prevent the A’s from losing a one-run ballgame for a major-league worst and franchise-record 26^th time.

On Thursday, Aaron Brooks attempts to follow up his stellar A’s debut in a 7:05pm start against Scott Feldman and the first-place Astros.