Ron Gardenhire didn’t mind getting a beer shower from his players Wednesday night.
He just didn’t know why it was happening.
”They ambushed me
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While Gardenhire didn’t realize he had just won his 1,100th game as a manager, someone – he suspects bench coach Steve Liddle – tipped off James McCann. McCann rounded up his teammates and raided the cooler.
”We soaked him,” Tigers third baseman Nicholas Castellanos said. ”He didn’t know what hit him.”
The milestone had a little extra meaning for Gardenhire because it came against the Twins, the team he managed from 2002-14.
”I have this big D on my chest now, and it was the Tigers who won this one, but an awful lot of them came with the team on the other side of the diamond tonight,” he said.
For most of the night, it appeared the Tigers weren’t going to get the win. Playing for the first time since Miguel Cabrera’s season-ending biceps injury, they stranded eight batters in the first seven innings and trailed 2-1.
The Twins then failed to add an insurance run in the eighth, stranding Eduardo Escobar after a one-out triple, and it came back to haunt them.
With one out in the bottom of the inning, John Hicks, Niko Goodrum and Grayson Greiner hit consecutive singles off Addison Reed (1-5) to tie the game. Jose Iglesias popped out, but Victor Reyes grounded an RBI single to left.
”I had everyone where I wanted them – 0-1 or 0-2 – but I wasn’t finishing the job,” Reed said. ”Jose (Berrios) threw a hell of a game, and I let him down. That’s the worst part of this.”
Reyes, a Rule 5 pick, started the night hitting .196 with four RBIs in 30 games. Used mainly as a pinch runner, he has only accumulated 50 plate appearances.
”We were going to be thrilled no matter who got the hit, but everyone feels great for Victor,” Hicks said. ”He’s in a really tough situation because he doesn’t get many at-bats, but he never complains and works harder than anyone. There are nights where he’s getting swings in during the game.”
Leonys Martin followed with an RBI single and Reyes scored on right fielder Robbie Grossman’s throwing error to make it 5-2.
”I didn’t contribute anything and Miggy can’t help us right now, but we still won the game,” Castellanos said. ”That’s how you can tell this team is good. Every guy in this room is picking up the slack.”
Joe Jimenez (3-0) got the win with a scoreless eighth. Shane Greene, Detroit’s fifth pitcher, threw a perfect ninth for his 16th save.
Berrios allowed one run on seven hits and a walk in six innings. Detroit’s Matthew Boyd gave up two runs on three hits and two walks in five innings.
The Twins scored twice before Detroit recorded an out in the first inning. Boyd hit Brian Dozier, Eddie Rosario doubled and Escobar hit a two-run single.
The Twins, though, only got two more hits in the game.
”When it’s 2-0 that fast, I can’t afford to get mad at myself,” Boyd said. ”I’ve just got to get the next guy out and start posting zeroes.”
Goodrum made it 2-1 with a second-inning homer off Berrios, his friend from their minor league days in the Twins system.
”It’s just part of the game,” Berrios said. ”We’re still friends, but now we’re competing. He got me that time.”
Like Boyd, though, Berrios settled in to keep Detroit off the board for the rest of his outing. The Tigers had runners on second and third with one out in the third before he struck out Castellanos and Jeimer Candelario.
Dozier appeared to make a spectacular play with one out in the fifth, using his glove to scoop Reyes’ drag bunt to Logan Morrison at first. The Tigers, though
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Victor Martinez fell behind 0-2 and grounded out to end the inning with the Twins still up 2-1.
The Tigers missed another opportunity in the sixth. Hicks started the inning with a single and took third on Goodrum’s ground-rule double, but Berrios struck out Greiner and Iglesias before retiring Reyes.
”In a situation like that, you just hope that someone is eventually going to get the big hit,” Gardenhire said. ”It took a while, but they finally came through.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Twins: OF Byron Buxton (toe) took batting practice on Wednesday, while Joe Mauer (neck and head) played for Triple-A Rochester on his rehab assignment.
Tigers: With McCann still sidelined by the flu and Hicks moving to first base in the wake of Cabrera’s injury, Greiner was the starting catcher. McCann was feeling well enough to warm up pitchers between innings and could be back on Thursday.
UP NEXT
The teams finish their three-game series on Thursday afternoon, with Minnesota’s Lance Lynn (4-4, 5.08) facing Detroit’s Michael Fulmer (2-5, 4.40).
Jed Lowrie loves the feeling of coming through with a clutch hit late to lift his team, and he just keeps showing a knack for it.
He is a big reason the A’s are rarely out of games even when down by a couple of runs.
The Oakland second baseman delivered his 12th game-winning RBI after filling in beautifully at third base during Matt Chapman’s absence, hitting a three-run double in the decisive sixth to help rally the Athletics past the San Diego Padres 6-2 on Tuesday night.
If that’s not enough to make Lowrie an All-Star for the first time in an 11-year career and at age 34, manager Bob Melvin might just throw his hands up in disbelief.
”It would be the icing on the cake. I feel like I’ve been close a couple times and haven’t been there,” Lowrie said. ”So that would be something I would always be able to say.”
Mark Canha added a solo homer in the sixth and Chad Pinder connected in the seventh.
The A’s finally got to San Diego starter Clayton Richard (7-8). Pinder walked to start the sixth as the first five hitters reached base. Khris Davis followed Lowrie’s double with a run-scoring single before Canha’s 11th home run, after a double play.
Emilio Pagan (2-0) pitched 1 1/3 innings for the win in relief of A’s starter Chris Bassitt.
Chapman went 0 for 3 in his return from the disabled list after missing 16 games with a recurring right hand injury that began bothering him during the offseason. He had played in 149 straight games before the DL stint.
Wil Myers hit a run-scoring double in the fifth right after Eric Hosmer’s RBI groundout got the Padres on the board.
Bassitt, who has just one win in five starts since being called up last month, escaped jams in the first and third innings as the Padres stranded five baserunners. The A’s made a pair of forceouts at home in the third, including first baseman Matt Olson’s nifty throw after a backhanded stop.
Myers’ double chased Bassitt. He was tagged for two runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings, struck out six and walked three.
Richard allowed five runs and six hits, walked a season-high five batters over six innings and struck out two in his second straight defeat.
”Defense picked me up early in the game but that’s the story of it was just too many three-ball counts and then put too many guys on with the walk,” Richard said.
Oakland, which had its six-game winning streak snapped Sunday by Cleveland, won for the 13th time in 16 games despite grounding into five double plays.
”As much as any team I’ve ever had, at least at this point, there’s no panic when we’re down,” the skipper said.
Leadoff hitter Travis Jankowski had three hits for San Diego, which will conclude the short two-game series Wednesday having played 23 of its last 28 away from Petco Park.
BIG MAC HONORED
Padres bench coach Mark McGwire, a former A’s slugger who spent his first 11 1/2 big league seasons in the East Bay before being traded to the Cardinals in 1997, was honored before the game as part of Oakland’s 50th anniversary season festivities in a ceremony at home plate with team President Dave Kaval. Big Mac received his green No. 25 commemorative A’s jersey and the Bash Brother tipped his cap to the cheering crowd.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Padres: RHP Jordan Lyles, scratched in the bottom of the first inning June 23 just before his scheduled start and on the DL with inflammation in his pitching elbow, played catch with the relievers and depending how he felt afterward the Padres would decide when he is ready to throw off a mound. … The Padres placed RHP Kirby Yates on the paternity list and recalled RHP Colten Brewer from Triple-A El Paso.
Athletics: RHP Trevor Cahill, who has an impingement in his throwing elbow, pitched in the Arizona League and is likely to make another rehab appearance Sunday or Monday before potentially joining the A’s in Houston early next week. … RHP Daniel Mengden (sprained right foot) threw a bullpen session and if all was OK by Wednesday the A’s planned to send him to Triple-A Nashville for a rehab assignment. … Oakland optioned INF Franklin Barreto to Nashville to clear roster room for Chapman’s return.
UP NEXT
Padres: RHP Luis Perdomo (1-2, 8.36 ERA), a taxi squad player, will be called up Wednesday to make his fifth start of 2018.
Athletics: LHP Sean Manaea (8-6, 3.38) is coming off a masterful June during which he went 3-0 with a 2.84 ERA in five starts.
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Konu Seçenekleri
