The Washington Nationals celebrate after Jeter Downs hit a walk-off single during the ninth inning to defeat the Oakland A’s at Nationals Park in DC on Sun Aug 13, 2023 (AP News photo)

By Barbara Mason

Sunday afternoon the Oakland A’s (33-85) finished off their three game series with the Washington Nationals (53-66) getting swept in three games 8-7 at Nationals Park in DC. Washington won the first two games of this series and the A’s couldn’t avoid the sweep. In Saturday’s game, Oakland had the lead going into the eighth inning but an ninth inning home run gave Washington a walk off win 3-2.

Sunday game recap: The A’s got going in the first inning taking a 3-0 lead. Oakland’s Zach Gelof hit a solo home run followed by a two run homer from Seth Brown.

The Nationals had one run in the first inning but the A’s continued to score runs. They scored four more runs, one in the third, one in the fifth and a couple in the seventh inning extending their lead to 7-2. Going into the ninth inning, the A’s had ten hits.

Zach Gelof had his second home run of the game in the fifth inning. He had three hits in the game and both Seth Brown and Aledmys Diaz had a couple of hits. The Oakland offense was clicking on all cylinders in this game.

The A’s had the bases loaded in the ninth inning with one out. They came away empty leaving three runners stranded. They were three outs away from the win in the bottom of the ninth.

A’s pitcher Trevor May would try to close out this game. He got into deep trouble loading the bases with one out. The Nationals scored twice in the inning. Washington brought two runners home with two outs and May was have a rough time finishing this game. He loaded the bases once again and he was finished.

Kirby Snead would relieve May and try to get that final out. With the bases loaded Snead walked Domenic Smith and Keibert Ruiz scored. The Nationals were within two runs of a tie 7-5. That tie came to be when Nick Allen couldn’t stop an Alex Call bullet and two runners scored.

This was a crazy turn of events for Oakland. In an unbelievable comeback the Nationals celebrated a six run ninth for a second walkoff in a row. The final out was the elusive out for Oakland, it never came. This was a disastrous loss for the Green and Gold.

The turning point in this game was of course the ninth inning. The A’s had the bases loaded in the ninth inning and came away empty and that was another huge factor in this loss. The failure on the mound was glaring and a lot of credit goes to the Washington offense as well.

Monday the A’s will travel to St. Louis for a three game series with the Cardinals. JP Sears will take the mound for Oakland with a 2-9 win/loss record and a 4.23 ERA. For St. Louis Miles Mikolas will get the nod with a 6-8 win/loss record and a 4.20 ERA. First pitch is scheduled for 4:45 PM.