Oakland Athletics’ Esteury Ruiz, center, celebrates with teammates after a game winning single during the 12th inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Tuesday, May 16, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Troy Ewers

OAKLAND–In front of a crowd of 3,261 in the Coliseum, the Arizona Diamondbacks played the Oakland A’s for game two of this three game series. On the hill to start Kyle Mueller (Oakland) and Tommy Henry (Arizona) and they both went four innings and each gave up four runs. The A’s came away with a thrilling 9-8 win over the Diamondbacks in 12 innings at the Coliseum.

Christian Walker’s two run home run for Arizona in the first was just a sign of things to come all game. This was Walker’s tenth home run of the season. A’s responded when the star of this team Esteury Ruiz got a double, then stole third (Ruiz’s 20th stolen base), and Brent Rooker’s single would bring Ruiz in making the game 2-1.

Rooker’s RBI single makes 30 on the season so far, which shows that having Ruiz lead off can almost guarantee a run, because Rooker can bring him in. The second inning saw a quick innings as both sides were retired rather quickly, but in the third the A’s would tie the ballgame up when Nick Allen hit his first homerun of the season.

In the forth, the Athletics would take the lead from a solo bomb by Ramon Laureano with two outs in the inning. This home run seemed like the highlight of the night, but little did everyone know we were in for a longer night than expected.

The Diamondbacks would mute the crowd when a Emmanuel Rivera RBI double would score two men in, but right after that big double, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hits a two run home run making the game 6-4 and the crowd in Oakland assumed that they were in for another Oakland loss at the hands of pitchers taking their foot off the gas when the batters put numbers on the board.

That feeling these A’s fans had was even amplified when two more runs by the D-Backs in the seventh were put up. Then the moment that caused a bigger eruption in Oakland than the K-Pop concert in the Oracle Arena right next to them was when the bottom of the seventh rally started.

With two outs Rooker and Diaz’s singles got them on base and got this momentum going, then an Evan Longoria error put Carlos Perez on base, making the bases loaded, and boom went the dynamite as Ryan Noda hit a monster grand slam over the left field wall.

This didn’t just tie the game 8-8, but it was Oakland’s first grand slam of the 2023 season. The Coliseum went absolutely crazy for this and after two scoreless innings, we had extra innings. A quiet tenth and 11th inning led the crowd to get restless, but it was the calm before the storm as in the 12th inning the Oakland star Esteury Ruiz with the bases loaded would hit the ball right at the shortstop, Nick Ahmed, and the ball would hit his glove, and the man on third walked right on home.This was Ruiz’s second walk off the season and it’s clear he’s making his presence felt on this roster.

The A’s split the series so far with Arizona one game a piece Wednesday is the finale in a day game at 12:37pm PT where Luis Medina (0-2, 8.18) of Oakland will take on Ryne Nelson (1-2, 6.20) of Arizona.