Oakland A’s hitter Lawrence Butler (center) is mobbed by his teammates after hitting a right field single to score the winning run in the 10th inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Fri Apr 12, 2024 (AP News photo)

Friday, April 12, 2024

By Lewis Rubman

Washington (5-7) 000 000 001 0 1 8 1

Athletics (6-8) 001 000 000 1 2 3 1 10 innings

Time: 2:36

Attendance: 5 ,777

OAKLAND–Yesterday’s magnificent 1-0, one hit win over Texas in Arlington behind the stellar mound work of JP Sears capped a successful 4-2 road trip was an indication that just maybe Fisher’s Fugitives might, after all, blossom in Sacramento and the desert wastes of Las Vegas.That is, if Fisher and Manfred’s machinations don’t turn out to be a mirage.

The peripatetic A’s pulled off a thrilling 10 inning squeaker of a win over the wobbly Washington Nationals, who had just steadied themselves by taking two out of three from the Giants in San Francisco, in a game that had a exciting beginning and an amazing end.

They won it behind that excellent mound work of Paul Blackburn and five relievers, the.bat of Lawrence Butler, and an alert play by late inning replacement Tyler Nevin at first. It didn’t hurt that Max Schuemann made his major league debut by scoring the winning tally as a pinch runner. But the excitement wasn’t limited to the frantic two frames of the finale.

The Naats’ Joey Meneses led off the top of the second of a scoreless tie with a single to center. Jesse Winker followed that with a single to right that sent Meneses to second. Both runners moved up 90 feet on Eddie Rosario’s grounder to first.

Menses tried to score on Riley Adams’ grounder to JD Davis at third, and umpire John Libka called him safe, a ruling that, after a long delay, was overturned on review. Blackburn wiggled out of jam when Luis García, Jr. fouled out to Davis After the game, manager Mark Kotsay had high praise for both Davis’s throw and Shea Langliers’ tag.

In the “home” half of the third, rookie Lawrence Butler slammed an 89 mph cutter from Washington’s starter, Jake Irvin 415 feet into right field to give the A’s a 1-0 lead.

Blackburn continued to pitch well, but not without trouble, for a total of 6-1/3 innings. His fielding was one the causes of his troubles. He didn’t get out Ryan Noda’s way on a pop fly to the mound in the top of the sixth.

The two A’s collided, and the ball fell for a two base error on Blackburn. Kotsay later characterized the play with words that recalled Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke, “a failure of communication.” The A’s started managed to escape unscathed and ended up without allowing a run in that or any other inning, holding the Nats to five hits and two walks, and maintaining a pristine 0.00 ERA, eventually having to settle for a no decision

Austin Adams (1/3 of inning), TJ MacFarland (also 1/3 of aninning), Lucas Ercig (an inning) blanked the visitors through the eighth. But Dany Jiménez allowed a full count game tying home run by Winker that just snuck over the low fence in front of the Budweiser seats in right.

Jiménez remained poised in spite of that blow and a two out double to Luis García, Jr. keeping the score tied, Mike Kelly pitched the tenth and get win. He was helped by a heads up play by Nevin, who, with runners on first and second, fielded a grounder by CJ Abrams, stepped on the bag and made an error throw to third to complete a unassisted 3-5 double play.

Hopes rose for the Athletics when Gelof reached base on an error by Nasim Núñez at second, who had pinch run for García in the top the frame. Gelof stole

Irvin, the victim of Butler’s blast, was no slouch on the mound either. That round tripper was the only hit the National’s starter allowed in his six frame stint. He walked two and struck out five, using 74 pitches, of them strikes, walked two and struck out five, lowering his ERA to 4.24 from the 5.73 he had brought with him to the mound.

The Nationals used four relievers, Jordan Weems, Robert García, Hunter Harvey, and Kyle Finnegan, who took the loss.

The A’s hung that loss on Finnegan after Schuemann ran for Seth Brown, who had been placed on second as the zombie runner. Then Washington decided to grant Shea Langeliers an intentional walk. Fielding hero Nevin went down swinging. Then Butler came through with a single to left, andS chuemann was off and running. He beat the throw home, and the green and gold had a walk off win to bring them within two games of .500.

Tomorrow, Saturday, the two evenly matched squads will do battle at 1:07. Joe Boyle (1-1,8.22), a righty, will face Washington southpaw MacKenzie Gore (1-0, 4.09)