*Photo from Yahoo! Sports*
LaMonte Wade Jr came off the bench as a pinch hitter in a massive situation, with the San Francisco Giants down to their last two outs. So what he did was deliver. Wade hit the go ahead homer, 3 other Giants homered, and the Giants shocked the Oakland Athletics with a 6-5 comeback victory on Saturday afternoon.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler said "One of the reasons I like LaMonte coming up in a big moment like that in a big pinch-hit spot, cold off the bench, is because of the way he leads off a game. He leads off the game ready from pitch one. We know he’s dangerous enough where can put the ball in the seats like he did."
Starling Marte got the A's started in the first, as they took a 3-0 lead on his RBI double, and a two run single from Seth Brown. In the second inning, Kris Bryant answered for the Giants with a two run home run, cutting the deficit to 3-2. In the 3rd, Matt Olson scored on a Josh Harrison RBI double, and Sean Murphy scored on a wild pitch in the 4th to give Oakland a 5-2 lead.
In the 7th, solo home runs from Brandon Belt and Darin Ruf cut the deficit to 5-4, the Giants once again trailing by one. Down to their last two outs in the 9th inning, Wade pinch hit for Ruf, and cranked a go ahead two run home run down the right field line, putting the Giants ahead 6-5, a lead that would last the rest of the game.
The Giants, who still lead the NL West by 1 1/2 games over the Los Angeles Dodgers, used their greatest strength to get the win. They came into this game leading MLB in homers, with 182 on the season. They scored all of their runs on home runs in this game, hitting 4 more to increase their total to 186 home runs on the season.
Wade said "Our offense was able to come from behind and put together some really strong at-bats and I just wanted to follow suit and do the same thing. Trivino's got a lot of good stuff that’s moving away from you and really coming into you, so just trying to push him out over the middle and get your best swing off. Luckily I was able to do that."
Tyler Rogers picked up the win for the Giants, throwing a scoreless 8th inning of relief. Starter Kevin Gausman only lasted 3 2/3 innings, allowing 5 runs, only two of which were earned, on 6 hits and one walk, striking out 5 hitters. Jarlin Garcia provided 2 1/3 innings of long relief, followed by one inning from Dominic Leone. That gave way to Rogers, and then Jake McGee, who picked up his 27th save of the season.
Lou Trivino fell to 5-5 on the season with the loss, and blew his 3rd save of the season for Oakland, giving up the homer in the 9th to Wade. Sean Manaea had a short start, allowing two runs on 4 hits and 3 walks, striking out 3 hitters in just 4 2/3 innings. That required Yusmeiro Petit, Jake Diekman, and Andrew Chafin coming on in relief.
Oakland manager Bob Melvin said "We’ve had to run our bullpen out there a little bit. The starters had been keeping our bullpen rested for the better part of a year. With Chris Bassitt out, we’re gonna have to get some guys going deeper in games. It hasn’t happened the first two games here, so we’re looking for a longer outing out of Frankie."
Frankie Montas starts for Oakland in the series finale against the Giants on Sunday afternoon, with Logan Webb getting the ball for the Giants.
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