Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sports
The long ball kept the A’s breathing.
The small ball gave them life.
The A’s hit towering shot after towering shot that helped them keep pace with the Astros’ prolific offense. But a couple sacrifice flies made the difference in a back-and-forth fight that became a 9-7 win at Dodger Stadium on Wednesday, Oakland fending off elimination and pulling within 2-1 in the best-of-five ALDS.
Chad Pinder, Tommy La Stella, Mark Olson, Mark Canha and Marcus Semien hit homers — all but Pinder’s solo shots — which tied for their most in a postseason game and was the second most by any team in playoff history. Still, they entered the eighth tied at seven because Jose Altuve, Michael Brantley and Alex Bregman combined to go 7-for-14, while Altuve and Aledmys Diaz homered.
It was the Oakland firepower that brought them back, Pinder’s 360-foot dinger in the seventh making a 7-4 game a tie game. But once the home-run derby was concluded, Sean Murphy and Pinder sac flies pushed the A’s ahead in the top of the eighth, and Liam Hendriks did the rest.
The excellent Oakland closer pitched the final three innings to pick up the win, throwing 37 pitches and allowing just one hit while striking out four. He got in some trouble in the bottom of the eighth, two getting on (Kyle Tucker due to catcher’s interference) without an out. But he induced a Yuri Gurriel pop-out, Diaz ground out then dramatic strikeout of Josh Reddick, who broke his bat over his knee.
Liam Hendriks made Josh Reddick do the Bo Jackson pic.twitter.com/nPpYnVo90a
— The Rickey Henderson of Blogs (@RickeyBlog) October 7, 2020
There will be a Game Four, set for 12:35 Thursday (which you can listen to on KNBR 1050). The A’s will need any kind of offense they can get, big or small. Although, they sure would appreciate if more of their dingers came with runners on base.