It wasn’t shocking that the Oakland Athletics first win of 2021 came in dramatic fashion against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Of course Jesus Luzardo deserves a lot of credit for keeping the A’s in the game. He struggled with control giving up three walks, he also gave up a RBI single to A.J. Pollock, while he struck out two.

With the A’s bullpen struggling manager Bob Melvin didn’t need Luzardo to struggle and have a relatively short outing. Fortunately he settled down and managed to go 5.1 innings. Ending with a line of six strikeouts and four walks while allowing two runs.

Oakland relievers did put runners on base yet were able to escape the jams. Los Angeles was 2-19 with runners in scoring position.

The A’s got their first run of the game on a wild pitch. Ramon Laureano scored after he stole second and third. Matt Chapman mired in a 2 for 19 slump to start the season hit a solo home run in the seventh inning. He also scored the game tying run in the ninth inning after a leadoff single. Elvis Andrus hit the sacrifice fly off of Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen.

Not surprisingly the game of went to extra innings. Edwin Rios was on second base to start the inning and Yusmeiro Petit came in for the A’s. He got Gavin Lux to fly out to center field and Zach McKinstry to fly out to left field.

Petit then appeared to get Chris Taylor for the last out of the inning on a foul ball. Right fielder Ka’ai Tom was able to get a glove on the baseball yet with a lot of ground to cover he didn’t come up with the catch.

Fortunately Petit got Taylor swinging on the next pitch.

For Los Angeles Jimmy Nelson took over in the bottom of the 10th and Mark Canha was on second. Jed Lowrie worked the count full and ended up walking. Ramon Laureano nearly ended the game with a hard hit ball to center field that Taylor tracked down.

Mitch Moreland quickly fell in a two strike hole. He took the third pitch for a ball before Nelson hung one that he took to right center field for the game winning RBI single.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.