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Oakland Athletics’ Mark Canha (20) runs the bases after hitting a three run homerun off San Francisco Giants’ Trevor Gott in the ninth inning of a baseball game Saturday, Aug. 15, 2020, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-Does it bear repeating that the ninth inning for the San Francisco Giants over the first two games of this three-game series have been a nightmare.

Mark Canha hit three-run home run on a 3-2 pitch with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, as the Oakland A’s came back to defeat the Giants 7-6 at Oracle Park.

Canhas home run came off of Trevor Gott, who gave up Stephen Piscottys game-tying grand slam on Friday night that tied up the game.

Gott looked shaky in his 0.2 innings of work, as he gave up a lead-off home run to Sean Murphy on the first pitch, then after Marcus Semien popped out for the first out of the inning, Tony Kemp doubled to centerfield, Gott then retired Matt Chapman on a lineout to Hunter Pence for the second out; however, Matt Olson then walked and then Canha launched his three-run home run that gave the A’s the lead for good.

Darin Ruf, who spent the last few seasons in South Korea, playing in the Korean Baseball Organization, hit a three-run home run off of Burch Smith in the bottom of the seventh inning,

Asides from Ruf, the star of the day was Kevin Gausman, who despite the fact that he did not fare in the decision, pitched a great game.

Gausman went 5.2 innings, allowing three runs on five hits, walked three and struck out a career-high 11 along the way.

The A’s, who scored the final six runs in a memorable 8-7 win on Friday night got to Gausman in the top of the third inning, as Marcus Semien hit a two-run home run to give the A’s a 2-0 lead. Also, scoring on the Semien home run, his second of the season, Vimael Machin, who picked up his first major league hit.

Mike Yastrzemski gave the Giants the lead in the bottom of the third inning in the very unconventional way, as he tripled to right field that scored Austin Slater and Donovan Solano, and Yastrzemski scored, as Semiens throw bounced into the dugout for a throwing error.

Matt Olson, whose last seven hits were all home runs made it 8-for-8, as he homered for the eighth time this season, a solo home run that landed on the netting in straightaway center field.

Solano extended his career-high hitting streak up to 17 games, as he singled in four at-bats in the game and is now batting a robust .433 on the season.

Evan Longoria got the seventh inning rally started, as he doubled to lead off the inning, then Wilmer Flores singled him to third, then after Hunter Pence struck out for the first out of the inning, Ruf planted a Smith pitch into the left field bleachers to give the Giants the lead.

T.J. McFarland struck out the only batter he faced to pick up the win for the A’s, his second win of the season, while Liam Hendricks, despite the fact that he allowed a walk to pinch hitter Alex Dickerson was able to get Dubon to pop out to Kemp for the final out and the A’s won for the second day in a row in dramatic fashion.

NOTES: By allowing four more home runs on the afternoon, the Giants opponents have now hit 36 home runs on the season, the second most in the major leagues behind division rival, the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have allowed 43 coming into the game.

The Giants have now allowed home runs in 18-consecutive games, the longest streak in franchise history, this according to STATS, LLC.

Last night was the Giants’ first loss after leading by five or more runs in the ninth inning or later since June 25, 1929 vs. Brooklyn (led 10-5, lost 12-10 in ten innings). according to Stats, LLC, the Giants had won their last 2,133 games when leading by five-plus runs in the 9th or later before last night, the longest such streak in the modern era.

UP NEXT: Logan Webb will take the mound in the finale of the series on Sunday afternoon, while the As have not yet announced their starter.

San Francisco Giants pitcher Johnny Cueto works against the Oakland Athletics in the first inning of a baseball game Friday, Aug. 14, 2020, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

By Jeremy Kahn

SAN FRANCISCO-This new rule of a runner on second base to begin extra innings is not working out for the San Francisco Giants at home, and it helped the Oakland A’s complete a phenomenal comeback.

Matt Chapman scored on a sacrifice fly from third base off the bat of Mark Canha, as the A’s defeated the Giants 8-7 in 10 innings in the opener of the Bay Bridge Series at Oracle Park.

The A’s trailed in the game by the score of 7-2 entering the top of the ninth inning, and then began their comeback.

As first baseman Matt Olson continues to hit the ball well, as he launched his seventh home run of the season that landed in the Giants bullpen in the top of the ninth inning off of Trevor Gott.

Things went from great, too good, too bad and then finally to the downright ridiculous within a span of four batters after the Olson home run.

Gott walked Canha, then the bizarre occurred when Grossman reached on a fielders choice, when Flores fielded the ball and threw to Brandon Crawford to get the force out instead of just going over to first for what would have been the second out of the inning. Gott then hit Davis to load the bases, and then with one swing of the bat, the game was all tied up, as Piscotty launched a grand slam that sent the A’s dugout into a frenzy.

That was the second grand slam of the season for Piscotty and like his walk-off grand slam against the Texas Rangers, he is the 14th player in MLB history to hit two grand slams in the ninth inning in the same season and the first A’s player to ever do it (Mike Selleck of A’s PR with that note).

Tyler Rogers replaced Gott, and immediately gave up a single to Sean Murphy and then a double to Marcus Siemen to put runners on second and third with one out. Rogers then struck out Chad Pinder for the second out of the inning, and after an eight pitch at-bat, Rogers struck out Chapman to end the threat.

Johnny Cueto was lights out, as he went seven innings, allowing two runs on just three hits, walked two and struck out five; however, he did not fare in the decision after the As exploded for five runs in the top of the ninth inning to tie up the game.

Evan Longoria got the Giants on the board in the bottom of the first inning, as he took a Jesus Luzardo pitch and put it into the left field bleachers to give the Giants a quick 1-0 lead.

Hunter Pence did even more damage in the bottom of the third inning, as he hit a three-run home run off of Luzardo.

Longoria broke what looked like the game wide open in the bottom of the fourth inning, as he singled to left field that allowed both Chadwick Tromp and Mauricio Dubon to score to give the Giants a six-run lead.

The A’s finally got to Cueto in the top of the seventh inning, as Canha singled to left and then Grossman tripled down the right field to break up the shutout.

With Cueto at exactly 100 pitches, Giants manager Gabe Kapler came out to the mound, but instead of pulling Cueto, he let him stay on the mound to face Kris Davis, who grounded out to Solano to score Grossman from third base, Cueto then got out of the inning, when he got Piscotty to ground out to Dubon for the final out of the inning.

Solano extended his career-high best hitting streak up to 16 games, when singled to lead-off the bottom of the third inning and three batters later, Pence hit his second home run in four days. The Fort Worth, Texas native returned to his home state, and more important to the city where he his major-league career began with the Houston Astros to key a come-from-behind victory that saw the Giants come back from a 6-2 deficit to win 7-6 in 10 innings.

Mike Yastrzemski he hit his fifth home run of the season that landed in the front row of the left field bleachers in the bottom of the eighth inning. With the home run, Yastrzemski raised his batting average from .297 to .307 with one swing of the bat.

NOTES: Longoria’s home run in the bottom of the first inning was the 299th home run of his career, leaving him just one shy of becoming the 149th member of the 300-home run club and would tie Chuck Klein and Justin Upton for 147th place all-time.

That was the 26th home run of Yastrzemskis career in his 145th game, and in comparison, his grandfather Carl, who hit 452 home runs in his career hit his 26th home run in his 245th career, thank you Sarah Langs for that tidbit.

This was the first time that the A’s have won a game after trailing by five runs in the ninth inning since July 15, 1952, when the then Philadelphia A’s defeated the St. Louis Browns (now the Baltimore Orioles) when Eddie Joost hit a walk-off grand slam off of Satchel Paige to win 7-6 at Shibe Park (thank you Dave Feldman).

UP NEXT: Kevin Gausman will start for the Giants on Saturday afternoon, while Sean Manaea will start for the A’s.

The grinding of teeth as the San Francisco Giants pitcher Caleb Baragar is lifted in the sixth inning of Wednesday night’s game in Houston after the Astros Martin Maldonado tags Baragar with a three run homer. The Giants host the Oakland A’s at Oracle Park in San Francisco tonight (AP photo)

By Jeremy Harness

The Giants just dropped a series to the defending American League champs. Now they have to contend with the hottest team in the game.

The Giants and A’s will now head to Oracle Park to play a three-game series in front of an undisclosed amount of cardboard cutouts and synthetic, non-authentic crowd noise, a series that starts Friday night.

The A’s are sitting atop the American League West with a 13-6 mark, having won 10 of their last 12 games in the process. The momentum really kicked into high gear when they swept the defending American League champion Houston Astros last weekend.

The Giants, on the other hand, are in last place in the National League West with an 8-12 record, and have dropped eight of their last 11 contests. They have lost games in different ways, with subpar defense, bad bullpen and the meager offense that Giants fans have grown used to for the past few years.

They have also been bitten by questionable pitching changes by manager Gabe Kapler, which was the main sticking point of his getting fired by the Philadelphia Phillies last season.

With all of this in mind, things are not looking good for the Giants and their overmatched lineup, and it does not figure to get any better in the foreseeable future.

Frankie Montas will go for the A’s on Friday, and he will go head-up with Giants starter Johnny Cueto, who had a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers in his most recent outing, which is one positive that the Giants can take into this series.

If there is another for the Giants, A’s outfielder Ramon Laureano is currently appealing a six-game suspension that he drew after his altercation with Astros hitting coach Alex Cintron over the weekend. He could very well miss part of, if not all of, the weekend series.