Oakland A’s Seth Brown shows his excitement after slugging a game winning RBI single in the bottom of the 13th inning against the visiting Detroit Tigers at the Oakland Coliseum on Fri Sep 6, 2024 (AP News photo)
Detroit (71-71). 000 010 100 121 0. 6. 12. 0
Athletics (62-80). 000 011 000 121 1. 7. 15. 0. (13 innings)
Time: 3:45
Attendance: 14,669
Friday, September 6, 2024
By Lewis Rubman
OAKLAND–After losing two straight games to Seattle, the wandering minstrels previously known as the Oakland Athletics this Friday evening found themselves facing Tarik Stubal, the ace of the Detroit Tigers staff. With the 16-4, 2.51 Stubal on the mound, a Detroit win looked like a sure thing.
But the Tigers’ hopes tanked when the A’s nearly broke a scoreless tie in the fourth frame and came back to erase a 1-0 Detroit lead in the fifth. After that, the game was up for grabs. When it was over, the battle had lasted an incredible 13 innings and scoreboard showed a 7-6 win for the upstart A’s.
Mitch Spence, starting for the Athletics, didn’t bring Stubal’s eye popping numbers with him. The 26 year old rookie was 0-3, 4.60 over his previous half dozen starts, arriving at the crumbling Coliseum with a 7-9, 4..50 mark for the season.
Nonetheless, with a little help from a nifty diving backhanded grab and throw to first of Kerry Carpenter’s two out, two on shot to end the top of the third, Spence held the Tigers at bay for 4-1/3 innings before the visitors pushed their first run across the plate.
Meanwhile, Skubal was in control until The A’s almost broke through in their half of the fourth. They would have succeeded if some inept baserunning hadn’t thwarted them. Butler led off with his second infield single of the game, making him the only Athletic to have reached base safely until then.
Brent Rooker moved him up 90 feet with a single to right. After Shea Langeliers flew out to center, JJ Bleday hit what looked like an RBI single to right, but Butler, after crossing third, returned to the bag, forcing Rooker to retreat to second, only to find that Bleday was waiting there. Rooker was put out. You don’t give away chances like that to a pitcher like Stubal and get away with it. Nevin went down swinging, and the A’s remained scoreless.
Detroit seized its opportunity to go ahead in the next frame with Riley Greene driving in Parker Meadows, who had singled, with a safety of his own. That left runners on first and second with one down and signaled the end of Spence’s mound tenure.
But, mirabile dictu, the Athletics knotted the score in the fifth. Zack Gelof smacked a one out double to left, and, with two down, rookie Jacob Wison drove him home with a triple to right. Then Butler, the man who had two infield hits in two at bats, nearly knocked the leather off the ball only to have Parker Meadows haul it down on the warning track in left center to end the inning.
Even more surprising was the bottom of the sixth, when the A’s drove Skubal from the box and took the lead on singles by Rooker, Langeliers, and Tyler Nevin.
The green and gold literally threw away that advantage in the top of the seventh. Hogan Harris, who replaced Spence in the sixth, allowed a two out double to Greene. Michel Otáñez came on to get the final out. Except he threw three wild pitches that allowed Detroit to tie the score before he got that out.
The bottom of that frame, featured some more of the twists and turns that by now had become commonplace. With Butler and Jacob Wilson on base, Jason Foley, now pitching for Detroit, Rooker was awarded first base after having been hit by a pitch.
Rooker took the base but then had to return to the plate when the Gabe Morales’ call was overturned on review. Rooker then grounded into a force out at second, and Langliers lined out to center.
The score remained tied after nine innings, and so we went into the extras. Mason Miller had struck out the three Tigers he faced in the top of the ninth, but Colt Keith touched him for a two out single that plated the zombie runner, Greene, to put Detroit up by one.
Nick Allen was inserted as a pinch zombie runner and tied the score on Rooker’s double to left. But the Athletics’ DH made the elementary mistake of trying to run on a ball hit in front of him and was tagged out on Langeliers’ grounder to short. Bleday then grounded out to third, and we went into the 11th frame.
The teams scored two runs apiece in the 11th and one apiece in the 12th. Grant Holman managed to shut the Tigers out in the top of the 13th, setting the stage for the A’s shocking victory. With Beau Brieske on the hill for Detroit and Bleday placed at second, Tristan Gray went down swinging. But Seth Brown came up swinging and smacked Brieske’s first offering, a 94mph four seamer into right field for the game winning double.
In all, each team used eight pitchers.
For the A’s, Spence went 4-1/3 innings and allowed a run, earned, on eight hits. He didn’t issue any walks and struck out half a dozen of the 21 batters he faced. 22 of his 70 deliveries were balls. TJ McFarand retired the two batters he faced in the fifth. Hogan Harris allowed a hit and a run, earned, in his 1-2/3.
Otáñez got a blown save charged to him for his horrendous third of an inning. Miller went two frames and allowed a hit. The run he allowed was unearned, which is the case whenever the ghost runner scores.
He walked one and struck out four of the seven Tigers he faced. Scott Alexander hurled a one hit, two run, one earned, innings, and Holman, who got the win and now is 1-1,4.00, went two frames and allowed a hit and an unearned run.
Skubal was lifted after 5-2/3 frames. He faced 24 batters and gave up nine hits. He struck out seven but didn’t issue a walk. His ERA rose to 2.53. Following him were Will Vest and Jason Foley (2/3 of an inning each), Sean Guenther (an inning), Tyler Holton (1-1/3 innings), Brennan Hannifee and Shelby Miller, each of whom was charged with a blow save), and the losing pitcher, Brieske.
Butler extended his hitting streak to 16 games. He went three for five.Brown, who has been on fire since his return from Las Vegas also had a multi-hit game, going two for two with a home run. His game winning single was his second walk off hit of the week.
This game was a tough act to follow, but Saturday afternoon at 1:07pm PT, the Tigers’ will start LHP Brant Hurter (3-1, 3.25) for the A’s LHP Brady Basso (0-0, 5.40).
