The Oakland Athletics squandered a golden opportunity in game four Tuesday night against the Detroit Tigers and now the series will head back to Oakland for game five.
Dan Straily pitched brilliantly until the fifth inning until he gave up his first hit, nearly gave up a two-run home run on a 2-1 pitch to Victor Martinez who wound up singling on a pitch left up in a zone and after getting ahead of Jhonny Peralta was not able to put him away and the result a three-run home run to tie the game up at three. There’s some who will wonder if the inning would have gone differently if Yoenis Cespedes had caught the bloop hit by Prince Fielder to start the inning.
Cespedes played deep respecting the power of Fielder making it a difficult catch for the A’s left fielder. Straily did bounce back to record the next three outs striking out Alex Avila, getting Omar Infante to pop out to shallow right and Jose Iglesias fouled out to first to end the inning. A 1-2-3 inning in the sixth ended his night before Sean Doolittle took over in the seventh.
That’s when it got interesting the A’s had retaken the lead on a single by Coco Crisp when Martinez a switch hitter went the opposite way with the fastball. A fan blatantly interfered with the baseball and still it got ruled a home run, which tied the score up. After a brief look at the play on replay and eventually confirmed, Peralta then doubled with Andy Dirks pinch-running and eventually scoring on an infield single by Austin Jackson. Dan Otero relieved Doolittle and struck out Torii Hunter to end the inning without anymore damage.
Jim Leyland desperate for a win had Max Scherzer on the mound he relieved starter Doug Fister to star the seventh and in the eighth the A’s had the bases loaded with no outs. Josh Reddick got ahead in the count just missed a fastball on a 3-2 pitch and wound up striking out on a pitch nowhere near the strike zone for the first out, Stephen Vogt fell behind early in the count and wound up striking out, Alberto Callaspo pinch-hit and nearly cleared the bases with a double to the opposite field, yet it just went a few feet foul.
He eventually worked the count full before lining out to Jackson in center field to end the threat. Ryan Cook took over for Otero in the eighth fell behind Miguel Cabrera and got him to ground out, Fielder struck out before Martinez singled and Dirks walked. Brett Anderson got called out of the bullpen he walked Avila to load the bases, Hernan Perez who had pinch-ran for Martinez scored on a wild pitch and Infante doubled to push the lead to 8-4.
Anderson got Iglesias to strike out to end the inning.
With the four run lead Joaquin took over in the ninth inning. Crisp singled, Josh Donaldson struck out, Jed Lowrie walked, Brandon Moss grounded out to first with the runners moving up to second and third, Cespedessingled scoring both Crisp and Lowrie, Cespedes went to second on fielder’s indifference and Seth Smith struck out to end the game.
Game five the A’s will see Justin Verlander and for Melvin he has two options Bartolo Colon who has struggled against the Tigers or Sonny Gray who was brilliant in his first postseason start.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
