Five-and-fourteen, and suddenly it matters
Shane Baz walked into Saturday night in West Sacramento carrying a 5-14 record and a five-start losing streak. He walked out with a win that pulled Baltimore to within one game of the final American League wild-card spot.
The line was not spotless. Two runs and five hits over 5 2/3 innings, four strikeouts, three walks, and an exit mid-inning with the bases loaded behind him. It was enough. The Orioles beat the Athletics 5-3 overnight and have now taken four of their last five.
Leody Taveras did the damage at the plate. Two doubles, three runs batted in, both hits landing at the moments the game was deciding itself.
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Two doubles, three innings apart
The first came in the third. Coby Mayo led off with a walk and Taveras bounced a ground-rule double off the warning track in right-center to bring him around.
Colton Cowser made it 2-0 in the fifth, turning on a two-strike sweeper and driving it to center. He scored twice on the night. So did Mayo.
Taveras came back in the sixth against Jose Suarez, who had just replaced A’s starter Jack Perkins. Two out, two on, a double down the third-base line, and Baltimore led 4-0.
Perkins deserved better than his 3-10 record suggests. Five innings, four hits, two runs of which only one was earned, five strikeouts against four walks.
Three double plays and a bullpen hanging on
Baltimore needed every one of those runs. The A’s loaded the bases in the sixth on a leadoff walk and two singles, and Lawrence Butler drew a four-pitch walk to force one in. Baz then hit Donovan Walton on the left foot with a breaking ball, forcing in another. That ended his evening at 4-2.
They loaded them again in the seventh. Yennier Cano came out of the bullpen and struck out Zack Gelof and Butler back to back.
Cam Sanders walked two in the eighth before Carlos Cortes grounded an RBI single through the right side. Runners on the corners, one out, Jonah Heim at the plate. He grounded into a double play, Baltimore’s third of the game.
An unearned run in the ninth handed Andrew Kittredge a two-run cushion. He stranded two for his eighth save. The A’s, who took the series opener 4-3 in 10 innings on Friday, now play for a split on Sunday.
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