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OAKLAND–With a major league-best eight walkoff wins, the Giants became the Bay Area team accustomed to racing out of the dugout and celebrating late-inning magic with an on-field party.
Earlier in the decade, the Giants were also the Bay Area team accustomed to hoisting trophies.
Though the prize the A’s earned for defeating the Giants 6-5 Sunday isn’t going to put rings on their fingers, their second straight walkoff win prevented San Francisco from claiming the first Bay Bridge series trophy following a late comeback.
Sunday’s game had all the elements of an instant-classic, including pinch hit heroics from Pablo Sandoval and Alen Hanson in a three-run seventh plus a go-ahead home run by Andrew McCutchen in the eighth.
But the A’s had enough firepower to recover, as Khris Davis devoured a Mark Melancon offering to tie the game 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth before Matt Chapman hit a high chopper off of Gold Glove shortstop Brandon Crawford’s leg and into center field for a game-winning single in the 10th.
“It was a high enough hop that I thought I could get it on that first big hop,” Crawford said. “It came down a lot steeper than I thought it was going to. I think that’s what caused me to miss it.”
The normally sure-handed Crawford was caught in the middle of a difficult play, and after the ball kicked off his leg into center field, Marcus Semien scored from second base to end a dramatic series.
“That’s a tough way to lose, no question,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “They got a break and that’s two tough losses for us. Especially the way we battled back.”
For the second straight day, the Giants began their comeback against a vaunted A’s bullpen in the late innings. After rallying to tie Saturday, the Giants actually held the lead with six outs to go Sunday before suffering their fourth walkoff loss of the year.
“You always want to keep fighting and we did battle back these last two games,” Crawford said. “I just think we need to get it going a little bit earlier.”
Giants starter Johnny Cueto hardly looked comfortable in his first six innings on the mound, allowing four runs and three home runs in his third start back from the disabled list. With the bullpen exhausted from Saturday’s 11-inning loss, Cueto returned to the mound in the seventh and kept the A’s off the board while giving himself a chance to earn the win.
“I feel really good and my confidence is high,” Cueto said through translator Erwin Higueros. “I just have to thank the manager and the pitching coach that trusted me and let me go out there for the seventh inning.”
Cueto dominated the first month of the season, posting a 0.84 ERA and holding opponents scoreless in three of his first four starts of the year. An elbow sprain changed the trajectory of his season, as Cueto has been a completely different pitcher since returning from the disabled list at the beginning of July.
After allowing one home run in his first five starts, Cueto has allowed at least two in all three July outings.
“He showed a lot of what he’s made of, he grinded it out for seven innings,” Bochy said. “He made some mistakes, but he gave us what we needed because the bullpen was thin.”
After failing to scoop up a first inning grounder from Nick Martini, Cueto recorded a pair of flyouts before Davis smoked a 408-foot two-run homer into the left field bleachers to push Oakland out in front.
Cueto didn’t allow the A’s to add on in either of the next two innings, but first baseman Matt Olson opened the bottom of the fourth with a laser into the right field seats. Olson redirected an 88-mile per hour heater from Cueto and slammed it 112.3 miles per hour, leading right fielder Andrew McCutchen no choice but to stand and watch the ball sail over the fence.
Before Cueto’s day finished, Olson launched his second homer of the game, another solo shot into the right field bleachers that extended Oakland’s lead to 4-1.
The velocity of Cueto’s fastball remains an issue, as the Giants starter did not throw a pitch faster than 89.9 miles per hour Sunday. After recording an average fastball velocity of more than 91 miles per hour in April, Cueto entered his outing against the A’s coming off two starts in which his four-seamer averaged 89.5 miles per hour.
While a one-to-two mile per hour difference isn’t too drastic, it could be a sign that Cueto is still dealing with complications from the elbow sprain that forced him to miss more than two months during the first half of the year.
“Right now, the only thing I’m trying to do is forget the injury,” Cueto said. “Good thing it was nothing serious. My goal is to get back to the form I had.”
The Giants’ offense still dealt with post-All-Star break complications, too, as A’s starter Sean Manaea kept the Giants in check throughout his 6 2/3 innings on the mound.
After the Giants recorded six hits over 11 innings in a 4-3 loss Saturday, Bochy’s club went hitless for the first three innings for the third straight game. Catcher Nick Hundley drilled a one-out single for the team’s first hit in the top of the fifth before rookie left fielder Austin Slater sent a double high off the right center field wall to bring Hundley home.
In his first start since July 7, Slater produced the only extra base hit against Manaea, whose hard work went to waste thanks to the efforts of San Francisco’s substitutes.
