Baltimore Orioles’ Manny Machado smiles after teammate Adam Jones hit him in the face with a pie after a baseball game against the Oakland Athletics in Baltimore, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

by Jerry Feitelberg

Baltimore- Tha A’s and Orioles concluded their three-game series Wednesday. The two teams played a very entertaining game as the Orioles jumped out to a big lead early while the A’s clawed their way back to tie the game in the ninth inning.The game went into overtime and ended when Manny Machado hit a walk off home run to win the game for the O’s by a score of 8-7.

The A’s righty, Daniel Gossett, making his first start since being recalled from Nashville, went five plus innings. Gossett held the powerful O’s scoreless for the first three innings of the game. The O’s scored four times in the top of the fourth. Jonathan Schoop and Adam Jones singled. Gossett served up a gopher ball to Trey Mancini, and the O’s led 3-0. Gossett walked Mark Trumbo and gave up singles to Wellington Castillo and Ryan Flaherty. Flaherty’s single produced the fourth run of the game for the O’s

The A’s put one on the board in the sixth. Boog Powell singled and scored on a double by Marcus Semien to left-center. The O’s came back in the bottom of the frame after a walk to Mancini, Castillo homered. O’s lead 6-1 after six.

The A’s, much to the pleasure of A’s manager Bob Melvin, mounted a comeback. The young A’s scored two in the seventh to make it 6-3. They score two in the eighth on the strength of Matt Joyce’s blast with a man on to cut the deficit to just one 6-5. The O’s Chris Davis homered for an insurance run. The O’s owned a two-run advantage 7-5 after eight innings of play, and they had their closer Zach Britton coming in to pitch the ninth. Britton has a streak of 60 games without a blown save.

The A’s upset Britton’s applecart in the ninth as they scored two more runs to tie the game. Jed Lowrie started the rally with a single. Powell followed with a double sending Lowrie to third. Marcus Semien singled driving in Lowrie  Powell moved to third. Powell scored the tying run on a Matt Joyce sacrifice fly. The Orioles failed to score in their half of the inning, and the game went to overtime.

The Orioles had Miguel Castro pitching for them and the A’s used, Simon Castro. There was no scoring in the tenth or eleventh innings. The A’s failed to score in the twelfth as well. Everything changed in the bottom of the twelfth. Simon Castro grooved a 1-1 slider to Manny Machado. The Orioles All-Star third baseman hammered it and won the game for Baltimore. The Orioles win 8-7.

Game Notes Daniel Gossett went five plus innings, allowing five runs on eight hits. He struck out six. He was not involved in the decision as the A’s battled back and took him off the hook. The hitting stars for Oakland were Boog Powell and Marcus Semien. Each had three hits in the game. Matt Joyce drove in three runs with a homer and sacrifice fly.

The Orioles’ Dylan Bundy also did not figure in the decision. Bundy went six plus innings, and he allowed seven hits and three runs. He did not walk a batter and struck out eight. Tim Beckham had three hits, and Machado had two, including the game-winning blast.  The A’s snapped Zach Britton’s streak of 60 games without a blown save. The winning pitcher was Miguel Castro while the A’s Simon Castro took the loss.

The A’s are off on Thursday as they return home to Oakland to face the Texas Rangers this weekend for three games.  A.J. Griffin, a former Athletic,  Cole Hamels, and another former A’s pitcher, Tyson Ross will go for Texas, and the A’s will send Kendall Graveman, Sean Manaea, and Jharel Cotton to the mound to handle the pitching chores.

The teams will be wearing the uniform with the players’ nicknames. Should be fun to watch.