Oakland Athletics’ Mark Canha, left, scores on an RBI sacrifice fly by Boog Powell as Philadelphia Phillies catcher Jorge Alfaro, right, watches during the second inning of a baseball game, Saturday, Sept. 16, 2017, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

By Jeremiah Salmonson

The A’s and Phillies went at it during stormy conditions on Saturday in the city of brotherly love. Those stormy conditions turned into a rain delay and an abbreviated  second inning performance from Kendall Graveman. Graveman did not allow a run. Following the delay, the Phillies came out swinging to bury the with a final of 5-3.

The Phillies offense scored single runs in the third, fourth, and eighth withtwo runs scored in the sixth. The Phillies were able reach five runs on eighthits. That would be all the Phillies needed as the A’s were only able to scratch across three hits. The A’s lone hits were on a solo homer from Matt Olson who continues his homer tear, Matt Chapman who doubled, and Jed Lowrie’s solo shot in the ninth. The only other at bat leading to a run was from Chad Pinders sacrifice flyout.

Due to the rain delay, both teams had to use more pitchers than they would have liked. For the Phillies, Lively threw three innings of two runball keeping them close. The Phillies also sent Rios, Arano, Milner, Ramos, Garcia, and Neris. Arano got the win which was his first of his career (W 1-0, 0.00 ERA). The A’s bullpen featured Smith, Hendricks, Castro (L 1-3, 4.06 ERA) Coulombe, Dull, and Casilla.

The rubber game of the series is tomorrow at 10:35 local time. It will be Henderson Alvarez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) against Sean Manaea (10-10, 4.65ERA) as the A’s look to take the series 2-1.