By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–Limited offense and a familiar deficit on the scoreboard had A’s fans sitting on their hands for eight innings on Saturday night. But the explosive ninth inning capped off by rookie Ryon Healy’s game-ending home run had those same fans howling all the way through the post-game fireworks display.

The A’s beat the Tampa Rays with walk-off dramatics for the second night in a row, just enough to at least temporarily escape the cellar in the AL West. And they did so despite two, major holes in their starting lineup, continuing an upward trend since the All-Star Break with a sixth win in nine outings.

“I don’t think there’s anything more fun than walk-off wins in baseball,” Healy said. “The fact we’ve been able to have so many in my short, eight-day career makes winning that much better.”

If anyone portends a brighter future for the Athletics, it’s Healy, who made his major league debut on July 15, signaling a reduction in playing time for veterans Danny Valencia, Yonder Alonso and Coco Crisp. A big guy with pop, Healy made his transition smoother by providing the quick feet and glove necessary to take over the third base job. Like a couple of other inexperienced A’s contributors, Healy has the look of a big-league mainstay with consistency as a hitter the final step in establishing himself.

Until those transformations take place, the A’s have to deal with their current reality, with lack of offense in home games as one of their biggest issues. On Saturday, Rays’ starter Drew Smyly took that issue and ran with it, holding the A’s to six hits and one run through six innings. Smyly entered Saturday’s contest with 11 losses, and no wins since May 16, but the A’s saw another, confounding left handed starter.

The A’s entered Saturday’s game hitting just .242 as a team at the Coliseum. Against left-handed starters, the A’s had lost 10 of 11, ending a streak of nine, consecutive losses on Tuesday against Houston’s Dallas Kuechel.

But those, two factors were just the foundation of the adversity facing the A’s on Saturday night. Josh Reddick and Stephen Vogt were scratched before the game, Reddick due to discomfort in his back, and Vogt was placed on the family medical leave list, necessitating that the veteran catcher miss at least three games.   Coupled with the 6:05pm start time, the bright sun and shadows, the Oakland offense not surprisingly mustered just one run, and only three baserunners getting as far as third base, through the briskly played, first eight innings.

Then in the ninth, with the A’s trailing 3-1, and Kendall Graveman’s five-game win streak in jeopardy, the A’s were faced with Tampa Bay closer Alex Colome, who had converted all 21 of his save chances. Likely alone in his optimism, Graveman held out hope in the A’s dugout, after pitching all nine innings, allowing nine hits and three runs.

“You just kind of had a feeling in the dugout we were gone to put something together eventually,” Graveman recounted.

Something came in the form of a pair of fastballs—interspersed with some nasty, breaking balls—from Colome. With a runner on, Jake Smolinski delivered first, sending a get-ahead fastball over the left field wall with Khris Davis aboard. Davis, the A’s leading home run hitter, had reached on an unlikely walk to a .246 hitter who with the A’s trailing by two runs, couldn’t tie the game as the inning’s leadoff hitter.

One out after Smolinski tied it, Healy ended it, sending a 3-2 offering over the wall in the left field power alley.

“It was awesome to see the guys there and how excited they were,” Healy said. “I saw the bullpen sprinting down, so I sort of slowed my jog a little bit to enjoy it and let them get there.”

The A’s look to make it three of four in their series with Tampa Bay on Sunday. Jesse Hahn was recalled from AAA Nashville to make the start, and he will face the Rays’ Blake Snell at 1:05pm.