Oakland Athletics’ Brent Rooker is doused with iced water by teammates after hitting the game-winning, three-run home run against the Texas Rangers during the 10th inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Fri May 12, 2023 (AP News photo)
Texas (23-15). 111 111 000 2 – 7 12. 0
Oakland (9-31). 110 110 010 4 – 9. 14. 1. 10 innings
Time: 3:22
Attendance: 6,575
Friday, May 12, 2023
By Lewis Rubman
OAKLAND–On this date in 1899, the Cleveland Spiders lost to the St. Louis Perfectos, 5-4, dropping Cleveland’s record to 3-18. The attendance was 200.
On this date in 1962, the New York Mets swept the MIlwaukee Braves in a double header, 3-2 and 8-7, boosting their record 7-17 and defeating Warren Spahn in the opener, The twin bill drew 19,748 fans to the Polo Grounds.
On this date in 2023, the Oakland Athletics defeated the Texas Rangers. in a thrilling, come from behind surprise defeat of the Texas Rangers, 9-7.
Shintaro Fujinami (1-4, 12.17) was the winning pitcher, and Brock Burke (2-1, 3,71) was the loser. The announced paid attendance was 6,575. Appropriately, enough Fujinami’s first MLB win came on Asian -American, Pacific Islanders night.
Some pitchers start running into trouble on their second time through the batting order. Ken Waldichuk, who started for the A’s has a tendency to find trouble in the second inning. Although he had allowed only one first inning tally before tonight’s outing. he’d been touched for ten in the second frame of his six previous starts.
He was true to form tonight. He threw a shutout first inning but was scored upon in once in each of the subsequent four frames. He threw a total of five innings, allowing four runs, tree of them earned, on seven; hits and five walks. He struck out an equal number of batters. He threw 93 pitches, 56 for strikes.
Martín Pérez was the starter for Texas. He hadn’t looked good in his last start, allowing seven earned runs in 3-1/3 innings last Sunday in Anaheim. Still, his 4-1,3.86 record coming into today looked positively brilliant when seen in the light of Waldichuk’s 1-2, 7.25. Like Waldichuk, he lasted five innings and gave up four runs. All. of his were earned. Three of the eight hits off him were hoers. He walked two and struck out three. 54 of his 88 deliveries were strikes.
Esteury Ruíz got things started auspiciously for the home team. He took the first pitch Pérez threw, an 89.6 mph sinker 412 feet deep before it came to rest beyond the left center field fence. It was the first home run of Ruíz’s career. An out later, Brent Rooker, another hope for the A’s future, wherever that may be, doubled to right. But the A’s couldn’t pad their lead.
Oakland soon paid the price of their failure to capitalize on their opportunities. edging off in the second, Josh Jung hit a grounder to Kevin Smith at third on the first pitch he saw. Smith made a wild throw to first, and Jung made it to third. Ezeqiel Durán’s two bagger drove him in, tying the score with an unearned run.
Oakland got that back in the bottom of the inning by playing classic little ball. Langeliers led off with a single. Smith followed him with a walk. With weak hitting Nick Allen at the plate, a sacrifice seemed in order. Allen laid down a nifty bunt towards the mound and raced off to first.
Umpire Shane Livensparger called him out, but the A’s protested the call. The review umps in New York overturned the decision. Langeiers then came in when Ruíz forced Allen out at second. (He probably would have scored even if Oakland hadn’t won the appeal; the bunt was pivotal, and the hustle encouraging).
Of course Oakland coughed up the lead in the top of the third.. Bubba Thompson walked and stole second, followed by a walk to Marcus Semien. Robbie Grossman doubled to left, driving in Thompson, bit Semien got greedy, and the A’s cut him down at home, 7-5-2, Rooker to Smith to Carlos Pérez. Jung’s 6-4-3 double play kept the score knotted at tw0. A sac fly by Leody Taveras in the fourth unknotted it.
Kevin Smith promptly retied it with a 43 foot clout into the left center field seats, his third dinger of ’23 that led off the home fourth. Two outs later, Laureano tripled to the right field wall but died on third when Rooker’s blast to center was caught on the warning track.
You knew that wouldn’t last long, and it didn’t. Lowe got. a one out double in the top of the fifth and scored on singles by Jung and Heim.
The see-saw battle went on into the night. Carlos Pérez took an 89.5 mph cut fast ball deep to left, 406 feet deep, and the game was tied at four.
Spence Patton took over for Wladichuk in the sixth. He got his first two men out, but Laureano was unsuccessful in his leap at the right field fence trying to bring down Grossman’s fly that landed in the Budweiser seats, and Grossman circled the bases as Patton left the field. Richard Lovelady replaced him and caught Lowe looking at a third strike.
Josh Sborz replaced Pérez for the home sixth and held on to Texas’s 5-4. lead.
Austin Pruitt pitched a 1-2-3 visitors’ seventh.
Cole Ragans was on the hill to face the Athletics in the bottom of the frame. The lefty put them down in order.
Pruitt returned to the mound in the eighth. Huff and Taveras greeted him with singles. They advanced. to third and second, respectively, on a wild pitch to Bubba Thompson, who grounded out to short as the runners. held their bases. Sam Moll relieved Pruitt and granted an intentional walk to Semien, loading the bases for Robbie Grossman, who had gone two for four with a double and a home run.
He also had two strike outs. When Moll was through with him, Grossman had three strike outs. A weak grounder to the mound by Lowe ended the inning, and the A’s still were in the running, although trailing 5-4.
The A’s utilized their speed in the eighth. Jace Peterson, who had hit for Smith in the sixth. Manager Bruce Bochy yanked Ragans and replaced him with Jonathan Hernández. And then Ruíz came through a single center that brought Peterson home with the tying tally. But a pinch hitter Ryan Noda grounded out Semien at second, and we went into the ninth tied again. This time, at 5-5.
Zach Jackson tried to preserve the tie for Oakland in the ninth. He was successful, three up, three down, two by Ks.
Hernández remained on duty. The first batter he faced was Carlos Pérez, 1-4 with a homer. He walked on four pitches. Tony Kemp hit for Díaz. He dropped a sacrifice bunt down the first base line to put Pérez in scoring position. Exit Hernández. Enter Brock Burke. He issued an intentional pass to Langeliers, setting up a possible double play or a force at third with Peterson at the late. Peterson fanned for the second out, bringing up Allen. He worked a full count before flying out to center.
Josh Smith pinch hit for Hugg with Durán on second as the zombie runner in the top of the 10th. Smith walked. Taveras sacrificed them each up a notch, and Adolis García came up to hit for Thompson. The count went full. García lined a single to left, scoring Durán, putting runners on the corners, and, or course, giving Texas a 6-5 lead.
Semien dropped a single to right that brought in Smith and moved García to second. That brought Fujinami to the mound. He struck Grossman out looking and went to a full count on Lowe before walking him, clogging the base paths. Then Jung flew out to right, and the A’s had one more chance to crawl. back into the game.
Allen was he zombie runner in the A’s tenth. He immediately went to third on a passed ball and almost immediately after that scored on Ruíz’s single to right.JJ Bleday, who had hit for Laureano in the eighth, hit a single to center that sent Ruíz to third. Everyone scored on Rooker’s walk off blast 408 foot to left center. It came on a 3-2 change up that changed the game..
Tomorrow, Saturday, the teams will play the third of this four game. series. The A’s will send JJP Sears (0-3, 5.54) to the mound. Jon Gray (2-1, 3,82) is scheduled to start for the Rangers.
