By DANIEL DULLUM
Sports Radio Service
Sunday, August 30, 2015

PHOENIX, Arizona – With a little bit of persistence, the Oakland Athletics took two out of three games of their interleague series against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Oakland loaded the bases in the ninth and tenth innings Sunday in an attempt to manufacture a go-ahead run. The first time, the A’s came up empty. In the tenth, the Athletics made up for it with three runs to hold off Arizona 7-4 at Chase Field.

“When you give up the lead in the ninth, it’s tough for all of us,” A’s first baseman Stephen Vogt said. “To come back out against a pitcher having a great year (Brad Ziegler) with five straight hits, that’s huge. That just shows the fight in our team.

“We showed signs of this all year, and it was nice to see it in a game that could have easily swayed the other way, like so many of our games have this season. It was good to see us keep fighting.”

Oakland surged ahead 4-3 in the top of the seventh inning when pinch-hitter Coco Crisp singled and scored on Mark Canha’s double to left field. The Diamondbacks tied the game again at 4-4 when Ender Inciarte singled off A’s closer Drew Pomeranz, went to third on a Paul Goldschmidt single, and scored on David Peralta’s sacrifice fly to left.

The Athletics had an opportunity to take the lead in the 10th inning, loading the bases with consecutive one-out singles by Josh Phegley, Marcus Semien and Eric Sogard. But pinch-hitter Jake Smolinski grounded to third, where Jake Lamb threw out Phegley at home. Billy Burns grounded to second to end the rally.

In the top of the 11th, the A’s loaded the bases again, but this time, they cashed in. With two out, Danny Valencia, Stephen Vogt singled, and Josh Phegley was hit by a Brad Ziegler pitch. Marcus Semien delivered a two-run single to right, driving in Valencia and Vogt.

After A.J. Schugel replaced Ziegler (0-2), Sogard greeted him with a single to right, scoring Phegley.

“You can’t try to do too much against a pitcher like Ziegler,” Melvin said. “You do the best you can to shoot them the opposite way, the way Marcus did. That’s the best approach.”

Pat Venditte (1-2) worked two scoreless innings to earn his first Major League win.

“He got his beer shower, so he’s better for that,” Melvin said. “I didn’t really want to use him today. Next thing you know, I’m using him two innings and he’s getting his first win.
“You could see the confidence grow in the first few pitches. That’s the best we’ve seen him. He needed to be perfect, and he was.”

Vogt, who went 3-for-6 with a home run, added, “That was awesome. The one cool thing about this year was Pat Venditte and Aaron Brooks getting their first wins with us, and watching guys like Billy Burns take off. It’s been a lot of exciting stuff going on, and to see a guy like Pat Venditte, who has worked so hard for a really long time to get his first win, it’s good to see him reach that benchmark. That’s pretty special.”

Venditte was the sixth pitcher used by Oakland. Edward Mujica, Fernando Rodriguez, Sean Doolittle, Drew Pomeranz and Venditte combined to allow one run on four hits with six strikeouts and one walk in a combined six innings.

“If you’ve never seen us play this year, you’d think the bullpen has been one of our strengths,” Melvin said. “Hopefully, this builds our confidence in our bullpen going forward.”

“We used most of our guys,” Melvin said. “I wasn’t going to use Lawrie at all, Sam Fuld’s back has been bothering him. You’re short a couple of guys and now you’re going through your bullpen. That’s when you just have to persevere and fight a little harder.

“This is probably the hardest we’ve fought all year.”

The Diamondbacks scored two unearned runs in the second inning. Yasmany Tomãs singled with one out, and after Nick Ahmed fouled out to first, pitcher Allen Webster reached on a throwing error by A’s pitcher Jessie Chavez, which allowed Tomas to reach third.

“I have to make that play,” Chavez said. “The ball had so much side-spin on that comebacker, it spun right out of my glove. But I have to stay with it and do what I do, play catch with it and go to first. That cost me at least another inning of pitching. That’s kept me from going deeper into ballgames.”

Inciarte followed with a base hit to drive in Tomãs, and Chris Owings’ single drove in Webster.

Oakland then came up with a pair of unearned runs in the top of the third to tie the game at 2-2. With two out, Billy Burns walked and scored on a throwing error by Jake Lamb. Mark Canha, who went to second on Lamb’s error, scored when Josh Reddick tripled to right.

In the bottom of the third, David Peralta put the D-Backs back in front at 3-2 with a solo home run to right-center.

Again, in kind, Vogt tied the game at 3-3 when he slammed his 18th home run of the season in the top of the fourth, a line shot to right.

“I thought that up and down the order, we put together quality at-bats,” Vogt said.

Chavez struck out six, walked one, and gave up three runs – one earned – on eight hits in his five innings. He also collected his first Major League hit in the fifth, but was thrown out on a base-running blunder between second and third.

“I just wanted to get the job done. We had a runner on and I just wanted to get a bunt down or put the ball in play and make the pitcher throw more pitches,” Chavez said. “To get a hit was kind of cool, but getting caught between second and third with no outs can’t be happening. That put us in a bad spot right there.

“We always talk about baserunning and how hard can it be. But you know what? It’s harder than you think! I didn’t know how close Burnsie (Billy Burns) was to me; he’s a lot faster than I am. I stuttered and should have picked up Wash (third base coach Ron Washington) instead of looking behind. That threw me off a little.”

“Jesse stumbled around the bag and easily had third if he wanted to crawl there,” Melvin said. “Sometimes your mind starts racing when you don’t do that a whole lot.”

Webster, the first of seven Diamondbacks pitchers, had a line almost identical to Chavez. He also worked five innings, giving up six hits, three runs – one earned – struck out two and issued one walk. Ziegler gave up three earned runs on six hits in 1 2/3 innings.

The Athletics return home for a three-game set against the Los Angeles Angels. Oakland’s probable for the series are left-hander Felix Doubront (1-1, 3.70) on Monday, and right-handers Chris Bassitt (1-6, 2.82) on Tuesday and Sonny Gray (12-6, 2.13) on Wednesday.

A’s ACORNS: Arizona was busy on the postseason roster trading deadline, sending RHP Addison Reed to the New York Mets for RHP’s Matt Koch and Miller Diaz. All had to clear waivers, and Reed had to arrive before Sept. 1 for postseason eligibility. Reed never panned out as a closer for the D-Backs, with 35 saves and a 4.23 ERA in two seasons. … The D-Backs also called up three minor league pitchers and optioned LHP Andrew Chapin, Saturday’s losing pitcher, to Triple-A Reno. … Paul Goldschmidt’s walk in the seventh inning was his 100th of the season. … Announced attendance for Sunday’s game was 29,576, a good number for an August game involving non-contenders.

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