A’s survive 13-inning marathon, beat Tigers 7-6

What a game!

Oakland snapped their small 2-game losing streak tonight, defeating the Detroit Tigers in a marathon 13-inning affair that the A’s ultimately came out on top of.

Spence solid in 20th start

The Rule 5 pick was effective against the Detroit Tigers in his first outing against the AL Central foes. Over his five innings of work Spence allowed a smattering of hits but ultimately kept Detroit off the board for the first four innings. It wasn’t until the fifth that Detroit, still on the periphery of the playoff race, finally got to Spence with three straight hits to take the lead and also chase Spence from this contest.

-Mitch Spence: 4 ¹⁄₃ IP, 8 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 70 pitches

Well, he sure wasn’t fooling anyone too much tonight. The eight hits aren’t pretty much holding the Tigers to just one run with that hit total is kind of impressive. TJ McFarland replaced Spence and was able to finish off the fifth without allowing any more damage.

Skubal (mostly) shuts down offense

With the Athletics facing likely AL Cy Young Award winner Tarik Skubal, runs would be at a major premium in this one. As advertised Skubal came into this game chucking, keeping the A’s off balance for the first few innings. Oakland had a chance against Skubal in the fourth but some base-running miscommunication cost the A’s an early run. Can’t be doing that against someone as dominant as Skubal.

On the bright side for the Green & Gold it wouldn’t take long to make up for the lost opportunity. The very next inning saw top prospect Jacob Wilson hit his first career triple, an RBI hit that tied this game:

He wouldn’t come in to score but still. Tied game. First triple. We’ll take it.

And it wouldn’t take long for another run! The sixth saw the team take the lead against Skubal when Dax Cameron singled to give the team a one-run lead:

Now with a small lead, the bullpen would need to hold up its end and keep Detroit off the board for the next few innings to snap this losing streak.

Detroit ties it up, off to extras

The A’s held on to that slim lead for all of ten seconds. Detroit tied this game back up at two apiece with a little help from the A’s bullpen. A two-out double in the seventh prompted Kotsay to bring out rookie righty Michel Otañez, who promptly threw two wild pitches that brought the Tiger base runner 180 feet to home plate. Not the best demonstration of control right there. Tyler Ferguson and Mason Miller finished off regulation for the A’s, tossing scoreless innings to give the A’s a chance at a walk-off.

No magic in the bottom of the ninth for the home team, so off to free baseball we went. Detroit as the away team got the first crack at bringing their “ghost runner” in to score. Keeping Miller in the game for his second inning of work Kotsay was rolling the dice but not a bad bet with his All-Star closer on the mound. Miller managed to get the first two Tigers batters but the third cashed in, bringing in the ghost runner and giving Detroit the lead in the 10th.

The Athletics would get their own crack in the bottom half. With one down snubbed All-Star Brent Rooker stepped to the plate and pulled an RBI double into the left-field corner, tying this game right back up at 3:

Tied up yet again, we were on to the 11th inning. Lefty veteran Scott Alexander took over for Miller and it was a tough outing for him as he allowed not only the ghost runner to score but an extra insurance run for Detroit, giving them a 5-3 lead with three outs to go.

And for the second time in two innings, the A’s answered back! Lefty smasher Seth Brown came up to the plate as the pinch-hitter with two outs and representing the tying run. And Brownie swatted the biggest hit of the night, a game-tying 2-run home run:

Wow! That’s Brown’s 14th home run of the season and his ninth since returning from Triple-A. Still one of the hottest hitters on the club right now.

And yet, for the third straight inning Detroit cashed in their ghost runner, taking the lead yet again in the top of the 11th. Can we end this ghost runner rule already?

And yet again, the A’s battled back in the bottom half of the frame. An infield hit and walk loaded the bases for Rooker who tied this game with a sac fly:

Still just one out the A’s were in an excellent position to end this one and send the fans home. And yet they couldn’t get it done, stranding the winning run at second base. Off to the 13th we went.

And finally, the Tigers failed to score. They managed to load the bases but couldn’t bring that 7th run across home plate. That gave the A’s the chance to walk this one off once and for all and send the fans home happy. With one down Brown came to the plate for the second time tonight and for the second time tonight came up clutch, collecting the game-winning RBI hit to finally end this game and send the fans home happy:

Whew. That was a bit of a marathon. Considering how quietly this game started we sure got our money’s worth with those final few innings. This team showed a ton of resiliency in tonight’s win and deserves to celebrate tonight. They snapped their 2-game losing streak and they’ll now head into tomorrow riding today’s high.

The club gets right back at it tomorrow afternoon. As of this posting the club has yet to announce the starter but we’ll let you all know as soon as possible. Detroit meanwhile knows who they’re going with and that’ll be rookie left-hander Brant Hurter.