Athletics Week In Review: 7/16-7/22

The Oakland Athletics entered the second half of the season with a 55-42 record, good for third place in the AL West. After the All-Star break, they hosted the San Francisco Giants for a three game set.

The series opened up Friday night as Edwin Jackson took the hill to take on Dereck Rodriguez. Jackson would last 6.1 innings but allow three runs on four hits and that’s all the Giants would need to pick up the victory, winning 5-1. The A’s lone strike in the game would be a Mark Canha sacrifice fly that would score Khris Davis.

The big news for the weekend however came Saturday before game two of the series when the Athletics acquired relief pitcher Jeurys Familia from the Mets in exchange for two prospects. Familia on the season has a 2.88 ERA with 43 strikeouts and 15 walks in 40.2 innings.

Game two had a little bit of everything. A record crowd for the A’s at the Coliseum, extra innings, and chairs. The Athletics lead 3-2 entering the ninth inning when Hunter Pence would hit a double down the right field line scoring Alen Hanson to tie it at three after Giants closer Mark Melancon grabbed a chair in the bullpen to avoid the ball and accidentally bumped A’s right fielder Stephen Piscotty with the chair, causing Piscotty’s throw to be offline.

The game would go to extras and in the bottom of the eleventh, Jonathan Lucroy would come to the plate with runners on first and second. Lucroy would hit a line drive to centerfield to give the Athletics the 4-3 win.

Sunday’s series finale would be another extra innings affair between the Bay Area’s two teams. Khris Davis would start the scoring early, hitting a two-run home run off of Johnny Cueto in the first inning. Matt Olson would follow up in the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo shot of his own giving Oakland a 3-0 lead. The Giants would cut the lead back to two when Olson would hit another home run off of Cueto in the sixth to push the lead to 4-1.

After a three run seventh and a one run eighth, the Giants led 5-4 and brought Melancon in for the bottom half of the eighth. Khris Davis would come up with nobody on and one out and take one to the opposite field over the right field fence for his second home run of the game to tie the game at five.

In the bottom of the tenth, Matt Chapman would come up with two outs and runners on first and second and hit a chopper to shortstop. Brandon Crawford would have a hard time picking it up clean and the ball would bounce to center field, scoring Marcus Semien, giving the A’s the 6-5 win.

The Athletics now have a 57-43 record and are 9-0-1 in their last ten series. Oakland will travel to Texas for a four-game series and then Colorado for a three-game series.

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