OAKLAND — Athletics fans supporting a boycott of their team’s scheduled move to Sacramento and eventually Las Vegas could be facing a dilemma.
What if the A’s are actually good?
Lawrence Butler supplied both runs with a mammoth home run and a run-scoring single in the 10th inning Friday night in a 2-1 win over the Washington Nationals at the Coliseum. It was the fifth win in six games for the A’s, who at 6-8 bear no resemblance at the moment to the team that began with a 1-6 homestand to open the season.
Butler’s single to left against Ryan Finnegan (0-2) brought home Max Schueman, who was making his A’s debut as a pinch runner at second base.
Attendance in the first game back after an announcement the A’s would move to Sacramento next season and after winning four of six games on the road was 5,777. That brings the Coliseum attendance to 50,845 in eight games, an average of 6,356.
The A’s prevailed despite giving up the tying run in the ninth inning on a leadoff home run by Jesse Winker against Dany Jimenez.
“I thought the energy was great tonight in the crowd,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “Whether it’s 3,000 or 30,000 these fans that come, they support us. In terms of our team and our success we’ve had recently off a road trip, this feels really good after giving up a lead in the ninth.”
ln the top of the 10th with Michael Kelly pitching, lead runner Trey Lipscomb was frozen between second and third on a sharply hit ball to first baseman Tyler Nevin. Nevin tagged first, then threw out Lipscomb attempting to reach third. Kelly then got the third out of the inning on an infield pop up. Kelly got the win, improving to 2-0.
Kotsay called Nevin’s play “a momentum changer.”
Butler’s first home run of the season wasn’t a cheapie, a 445-foot first pitch rocket to right field against Jake Irvin that left his bat at 113.1 miles per hour.
“One-thirteen is probably the hardest ball I’ve ever hit, not my longest homer but my hardest hit ball,” Butler said. “That felt pretty good. If that didn’t get then I might as well just give it up.”
The game-winning single was an entirely different piece of hitting.
“It was a fastball on the outside, dotted,” Butler said. “That’s a great closer on the Nationals side. I just tried to put the ball in play and give my team a chance.”
Starter Paul Blackburn departed after 6 1/3 innings and 90 pitches, but left with his scoreless streak intact at 19 1/3 innings. Winker singled to center and Blackburn struck out Eddie Rosario. Kotsay brought on Austin Adams, who gave up a single to Riley Adams and struck out Luis Garcia Jr.. When Lipscomb walked to lead the bases, left-hander T.J. McFarland came on to strike out C.J. Abrams for the third out.
Although primarily a pitch-to-contact pitcher, Blackburn had 12 swings and misses from Washington hitters, which he credited to a cut fastball and changeup.
“I think we’re a good team. I really do,” Blackburn said. “The way we’ve pitched, the way we’ve played on this road trip, I feel it’s been really good.”
Lucas Erceg pitched a scoreless eighth for the A’s.
Washington starter Jake Irvin left after six innings, giving up just one hit on the home run to Butler. He walked two and struck out five.
In the sixth, Blackburn’s own error — he collided with first baseman Ryan Noda on a pop up near the mound with the ball bouncing free — allowed Lane Thomas to reach second with one out. Blackburn retired Joey Gallo on a grounder to first, sending Thomas to third, and got Joey Meneses on a grounder to third to end the threat.
“I’ll get out of the way next time,” Blackburn said.
Ground ball double plays to shortstop Nick Allen by Meneses in the fourth and Lipscomb in the fifth allowed Blackburn to escape trouble.
Blackburn nearly gave up his first run of the season in the second inning but was aided by an umpire reversal on a play at the plate. With runners on second and third, Riley Adams chopped a grounder to third that was fielded by J.D. Davis. Davis threw to Shea Langeliers at the plate, but Joey Meneses was initially ruled safe. After the A’s challenged the call, Meneses was called out. Blackburn that got Garcia on a foul pop for the third out.
Meneses and Winker had back-to-back singles to begin the inning.
It wasn’t Miller time
Even with the day off Thursday, Kotsay thought it prudent to keep Miller out of the mix. Miller spent from May to September on the injured list with a UCL strain last season.
“It would have been three out of four with Mason tonight,” Kotsay said. “This kid’s coming off the elbow injury last season. There’s no rush in trying to get him out there as much as possible. It’s April 12. Dany made one bad pitch, a 3-2 breaking ball, and we got beat on it. But he calmed down and got us out of that inning.”
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Doolittle’s haul
Former A’s reliever Sean Doolittle, a pitching strategist from the Washington Nationals, met with Last Dive Bar co-founder Bryan Johanson to pick up a bag of “Last Dive Bar” wristbands.
There were no organized protests by LDB or any other fans group and banners were scarce in the outfield, with two green “Sell” banners in left and one in right.
