Photo credit: @KING5SPORTS

By: Ana Kieu

OAKLAND, Calif. — It was August 15th and the Oakland A’s were loud and proud about the fact that they’re just one game back of the Houston Astros just moments before the home game versus the Seattle Mariners at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum on Wednesday afternoon. The A’s haven’t been this confident in a long time.

Both teams engaged in a pitching duel and a very defensive battle through seven innings. Wednesday’s seventh inning stretch was extremely exciting, thanks to the talented in-stadium host Kara Tsuboi (@karashotcorner).

The A’s Twitter managed to make the scoreless innings sound thrilling as they tweeted, “The late innings have arrived. You know what that means.”

A’s manager pulled starter Brett Anderson out of the game, and rookie reliever Lou Trivino entered in relief. Trivino pitched just 1/3 of the eighth inning.

Veteran reliever Fernando Rodney stepped onto the mound for the A’s. Rodney pitched 2/3 of the eighth inning.

Newly acquired reliever Jeurys Familia warmed up in the A’s bullpen just moments before he had to get on the field.

Neither team was able to score in the standard nine innings, so the game went into extra innings. Fans in attendance got the chance to watch additional baseball for free, which was a wonderful thing–especially for the kids.

The Mariners finally broke open the scoring in the top of the 12th inning. The M’s Dee Gordon hit a two-run home run for his 24th RBI of the season. Gordon hit the two-run homer off of A’s reliever Yusmeiro Petit, who has played for the Giants from 2012 to 2015.

The M’s shutout the A’s 2-0 in a three-hour, 13-minute game in front of 17,078 fans. The M’s James Pazos was the winning pitcher. Pazos’ record upped to 3-1. Petit, who was the last A’s reliever, got the loss. Petit’s record dropped to 1-2.

The M’s moved up on the A’s in the AL Wild Card standings. The M’s are now 2 1/2 games back of the A’s and also gained one full game on the A’s.

Notes
Three A’s players made appearances on television and radio Wednesday morning. Stephen Piscotty was on air on Sports 1140 KHTK at 8:35 am PDT. Marcus Semien joined Jim Rome on CBS Sports Network at 9:30 am PDT. Trevor Cahill spoke on MLB Network Radio at 9:35 am PDT.

A’s 50th anniversary moments
In 1976, Joe Rudi collected his 1000th hit as an Oakland Athletic in the A’s 8-7 win against Boston…In 1980, Rick Langford pitched a six-hitter as the A’s defeated Seattle 11-3…It’s his club record ninth consecutive complete game victory…The win came in the midst of a club record 22 consecutive complete games…In 2009, Adam Kennedy was a perfect 5-for-5 in the A’s 8-1 loss to Chicago…It’s Kennedy’s second of two five-hit games in 2009.

Up Next 
The A’s have a much-needed day off on Thursday. They’ll welcome the Astros for a three-game series starting this Friday night at 7:05 pm PDT.