By Matthew T.F. Harrington

AP photo: The Oakland A’s Billy Burns gets mobbed by teammates after his walk off single vs. the Los Angeles Angels in the ninth at the Oakland Coliseum on Friday night

OAKLAND, Calif. – The Oakland Athletics had a whirlwind of a ninth inning Friday night at O.Co Coliseum, but luckily the low came first, followed by the high. After Ryan Madson blew a save in the top of the frame, Billy Burns singled home the winning run with two outs in the bottom half of the frame for a 3-2 Athletics win over the Los Angeles Angels.

Kendall Graveman pitched passed the sixth inning for the first time this season, stymying the Angels (29-38) to just one run over his seven innings of work. The 25-year-old scattered just three hits, one each in the game’s first three innings, while allowing the lone run on a solo home run to Kole Calhoun in the third inning to tie the game 1-1 at the time.

“That was the best we’ve seen him in a while,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin. “He found out he can throw his sinker in the zone no matter where it is as long as it’s down. He’ll get a lot of ground balls. That was vintage Kendall.”

Despite his start, Graveman had to settle for the no-decision after giving way to the bullpen. Sean Doolittle surrendered a double to lead off the inning against Andrelton Simmons, then saw the tying run move 90 feet from home on Kole Calhoun’s sacrifice bunt. Doolittle coaxed a shallow pop-up from Calhoun to third base and closer Ryan Madson finished off Mike Trout on a fly out for the third out of the frame to preserve Graveman’s efforts. Madson then allowed the tying run in the 9^th inning after allowing a one-out single to Jefry Marte followed by what appeared to be a game-saving catch by substitution Jake Smolinski.

To the naked eye, it appeared Smolinski had robbed Redwood City native Daniel Nava on a basehit in the gap in right field, diving into the alley to steal a hit then double off pinch runner Todd Cunningham at first. After review, it was ruled that Smolinski had trapped the ball, putting Nava at first and Cunningham at third.

“Intitally I thought that I had caught the ball,” said Smolinski. “I went over to (Burns) and asked what it looked like to him.”

“He asked me directly ‘I caught it, right’?,” said Burns, smiling while recanting the ninth inning exchange. “I said ‘No’. I was covering my lips. I didn’t want anybody to read my lips, I thought maybe it was one of those calls they couldn’t over turn.”

Johnny Giavotello then lofted the game-tying sacrifice fly off Madson. Despite blowing the save, Madson (3-2, 2.67 ERA) wound up the winner thanks to Burns’ walk-off in the bottom of the ninth. The winning single came with two outs in the inning and runners on first and third base. Jed Lowrie and Yonder Alonso both failed to reach base for quick outs but Marcus Semien walked and Smolinski singled to advance him to third.

“In a game like that, we felt like we were in a pretty good position,” said Melvin. “Then all of the sudden we’re down. The guys were pretty spirited in the dugout going into that inning. Then we have two outs, nobody on. We get the walk then (Smolinski) has his second really good at bat of the night and it puts Billy in position to win the game. Not only can it swing emotionally to you negatively giving up a run, now we have two outs and nobody and guys continued to battle.”

Burns then shot a single just past the glove of Simmons at short to get the shaving cream pie and a W for the green and gold. Fernando Salas (3-3, 4.02) was tagged, with the loss.

“It felt great,” said Burns of his first career walk-off hit. “Especially when you don’t really get hits the hwole game and then come up and come through for the team, find a way to find a hole. But the real hero tonight was Kendall Graveman throwing seven solid innings. He was awesome tonight. I just happened to be the last hitter.”

Graveman’s lone mistake of an otherwise heroic start came on the homer to Calhoun, with the sinkerballer leaving an intended backdoor slider over the plate to the lefty hitter. Otherwise, Graveman’s sinker was sharp Friday, retiring 13 of 21 hitters by way of the ground out. He also picked up four strikeouts in his best start of the season, allowing one run in five-plus innings for just the third time this year and first outside the month of April.

“The one mistake I had was on a breaking ball,” said Graveman. “I thought the stuff was good. I thought the sinker and cutter really complimented each other well today. It helped me to get deep into the game today.”

Graveman entered play sporting a 5.28 ERA and was entering play amidst a string of uninspiring starts. He had allowed five runs over 4 1/3 innings against the Astros on June 4^th, then gave up one run but only lasted four innings in Cincinnati Sunday afternoon. He managed to pull his ERA south of 5.00 with his stellar outing, and looks to go on another run like he had from May 19th to 30^th when he allowed two runs or less over three straight starts.

“It’d be huge if he continue that for us,” said Melvin. “We’re down a couple of starters, we’re relying on some younger guys to pitch toward the top of our rotation.”

While Graveman was entering play on a low note, Angels starter Matt Shoemaker was coming in off his best performance of the season. The righty fired eight innings of three-hit ball with 11 punch-outs of the Cleveland Indians on Saturday evening. The A’s would scratch a run across in the second inning with an sacrifice fly from Yonder Alonso that scored Danny Valencia. They then took the lead for a second time two innings later when Khris Davis crushed Shoemakers 1-1 changeup to left centerfield for his 16^th homer of the season.

While both teams weren’t sure what to expect of their Friday night starters, their Saturday starters are even more intriguing. Longtime mainstay on the other side of the Bay, Tim Lincecum will don the Angel road grays tomorrow in his debut with the club after signing a few backs. For the A’s, Andrew Triggs gets the call from Triple A Nashville. A long relief man in his earlier stint with the club, Triggs is expected to be capped at something less than 70 pitches tomorrow.

“We’re not too worried about what we get from him,” said Melvin. “We’ll have an extra pitcher here tomorrow regardless. We’ll have a deep bullpen tomorrow. We’ll mix and match tomorrow. He’s thrown up to 70 pitches, but we’re not really expecting him to do that.”