Lowrie Saves The Day
Jed Lowrie earns his first walk-off pie in Oakland. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Jed Lowrie, on Saturday, earned his first walk-off pie as the A’s took down the Astros in a 4-3 victory and single handedly restored hope among the long suffering fan base. Lowrie also went 2 for 4 for the day, as if the pie wasn’t good enough.
The A’s scored first when they loaded the bases with 0 outs. Brandon Moss popped up for a sacrifice fly RBI and Josh Donaldson hit into a double play to end the inning. Of course, more runs in that situation would be ideal and with the A’s penchant for scoring in a single inning a day the pressure was put on Scott Kazmir to dominate today.
Kazmir went five innings without a hit but gave up two runs in the sixth and then loaded the bases in the seventh on three back-to-back walks. Melvin took him out of the game with the bases loaded and no men out and brought in Dan Otero to finish the inning. Luke Gregerson eventually got the win with a very exciting ninth inning rally.
The rally began with a single from Josh Donaldson followed by a one-out single from Derek Norris who took eight pitches and ended Scott Feldman‘s outing. With men at the corners, Josh Reddick took the plate and came a few feet short of a centerfield home run but settled for a 2 RBI double. Then came Jed “The Clutch” Lowrie. Lowrie took a swing at the fourth pitch he saw on an 0-2 count and hit a single to left that brought Josh Reddick home from second and ended the game in the first A’s walk-off since August 4. It was glorious. I teared up a bit. Don’t judge me.
This is exactly the type of game that can jumpstart a miraculous comeback. It had all the makings of a classic Oakland Athletics game with solid pitching, dominant bullpen and clutch hitting from several players. Melvin said in his post game conference that he hoped the guys remembered how good it felt to win and, on behalf of all the fans, we agree. We all hope that this is the catalyst for an amazing September.
Are we out of the woods yet? Not even close. The Angels ended up winning their game and we remain six games out of first place but we didn’t lose any ground and that’s good enough for me.
Josh Reddick should be noted for going 2 for 4 with two RBIs and a run today as well as Coco Crisp who also went 2 for 4 and of course Jed Lowrie. Also of note is Mike Gallego who got his windmill arm going full throttle to send Reddick home from second in a very aggressive move. Most third base coaches would probably play it safe and stop Reddick at third since there was only one out on the board and the game was tied. Why risk taking a runner off of the base path and out of scoring position, especially when you see that the runner got a bad read on the ball? It’s not a risk for Gallego. He knows what Reddick is capable of and knows that his gamble will pay off and end the game. I’m not the first to suggest this but Gallego deserved every bit as much pie as Lowrie got today.
Sunday is a new day and the A’s may revert back to their struggling ways but hope has been restored, at least for the moment, and the A’s may turn this momentum into something we’ll be talking about in October. While I didn’t like dropping a bajillion dollars for my post season strip, I’d also prefer to not get too much of a refund (they can sweep some series) and if the team ends up at the top of the division, this game will be the one I remember.
I want the A’s to win. I believe the A’s can win. After this walk-off, I have a little more confidence that my beloved baseball team, the team I have followed since I was a child in the late 80’s, the team who’s logo is on my watch, keyring and hat every single day, the team I spend hours every week writing about, the team I spend hundreds of dollars every year seeing and cheering for can do what needs to be done to go all the way. Sure, the Angels are going to need to help out and lose some games but I won’t focus on that as long as the Singin’ A’s keep doing what they did today and relax, have fun and win games. Let’s go Oakland!