A's rally in 9th, stun Giants in 10

Mark Canha hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th, and Liam Hendriks struck out the side in the bottom of the inning Friday night as the Oakland Athletics rallied from five runs down in the ninth to stun the host San Francisco Giants 8-7 in the opener of a three-game interleague series.


Reuters | Updated: 15-08-2020 11:08 IST | Created: 15-08-2020 11:00 IST
A's rally in 9th, stun Giants in 10
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Mark Canha hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the top of the 10th, and Liam Hendriks struck out the side in the bottom of the inning Friday night as the Oakland Athletics rallied from five runs down in the ninth to stun the host San Francisco Giants 8-7 in the opener of a three-game interleague series. The A's played station-to-station ball to score in the 10th off the Giants' fifth pitcher, Jarlin Garcia (0-1). Matt Chapman, who began the inning on second base, advanced from second to third on a Matt Olson grounder and then came home on Canha's sacrifice fly to right.

Hendricks slammed the door in the last of the 10th, needing just 13 pitches to record his sixth save. Joakim Soria (2-0), who stranded the potential winning run at third base in the last of the ninth, was credited with the win.

On a night when they had to scratch scheduled starter Frankie Montas because of tightness in his upper back, the A's trailed 6-0 and then 7-2 entering the ninth before Olson belted a one-out solo home run, his seventh of the year, off Giants closer Trevor Gott to ignite a game-tying uprising. After a walk, a fielder's choice on which the Giants didn't get an out and a hit batter, Stephen Piscotty drove a Gott pitch into the left field bleachers for a grand slam, tying the game at 7-7.

The slam was the fourth of Piscotty's career and his second of the season. On Aug. 4, he launched a walk-off slam against the Texas Rangers. For eight innings, the story of the night appeared to be co-written by Giants right-hander Johnny Cueto and outfielder Hunter Pence, much as it was last Saturday when Pence, playing left field, lost an Enrique Hernandez flyball in the lights in the sixth inning, ending Cueto's no-hit bid against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

This time, Pence got the start in right field and worked to complement Cueto with his bat, belting his second homer of the season off A's replacement starter Jesus Luzardo to turn a 1-0 game into a four-run Giants advantage in the third inning. Evan Longoria matched his teammate both with a home run and three RBIs. The homer, his second of the season, came in the bottom of the first after Luzardo had retired the first two men he faced.

Longoria later padded the San Francisco run total with a bases-loaded infield single in the fourth inning that scored Chadwick Tromp from third and Mauricio Dubon from second. Luzardo was replaced at that point, charged with six runs and nine hits in 3 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out three.

Cueto took a one-hit shutout and 6-0 lead into the seventh before Canha singled, Robbie Grossman tripled for one run and Khris Davis grounded out for another run. The veteran was done after the inning, having allowed two runs on three hits. He walked two and struck out five.

Mike Yastrzemski added his fifth homer of the season, a solo shot in the eighth inning, giving the Giants a five-run cushion to take into the ninth. Wilmer Flores finished with four hits while Longoria and Dubon collected two apiece for the Giants, who were hosting the opener of a six-game Bay Bridge series that will conclude next month in Oakland.

Piscotty and Marcus Semien had two hits each for the A's. --Field Level Media

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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