The Oakland As swept their local rivals over the weekend, and it was a beautiful sight to behold.
On Friday, they kicked the last-place San Francisco Giants through with five runs in the 9th inning, but mounted a historic comeback to win in extras. Saturday, they sat in the 9th against a three-run deficit, against the same pitcher, and came back to win again. On Sunday, they previously provided matters with a 5th inning in the ninth run, en route to a 15-3 rout.
It was a breakthrough from all angles, combining the torture of late innings collapsed with the hopelessness of completely blowing out half a game. For at least one weekend, it was enough to make the Giants believe. It even made the San Francisco air scream Saturday night, amid an August heatwave in California.
But the icing on the cake of this delicious sweep was the cast of characters leading the way. Near the grid of the whole A came in, but three hitters were mostly stupid, and each are local Bay Area products: Mark Canha of San Jose, Stephen Piscotty of Pleasanton, and Marcus Semien of Berkeley.
Oakland scored 30 runs in this series, and 19 of them were driven in by that trio of the hometown, plus twice more they were thrown in by other teammates. She also added five of the team’s nine homers, and 14 of the 35 hits.
- Canha: 6-for-12, HR, 3B, 2B, 6 RBI, 5 runes, 2 BB, 3 Ks, .594 xwOBA
- Piscotty: 4-for-11, 2 HR, 2B, 9 RBI, 2 runes, 2 BB, 2 Ks, .512 xwOBA
- Semien: 4-for-15, 2 HR, 2B, 4 RBI, 2 runes, 0 BB, 2 Ks, .428 xwOBA
Add ’em up:
- The bay: 14-for-38, 5 HR, 3B, 3 2B, 19 RBI, 9 runes, 4 BB, 7 Ks, .513 xwOBA
Those are mammoth numbers in any context, but their effect in these games was especially great. In the series opener, it was Piscotty’s big slam in the 9th inning that bound the game surprisingly, and then in the 10th it was Canha who hit the sac fly to shake off the final winning run at home. In the sequel, it was Canha who came through in the 9th with a dong with three runs to save Oakland at the last possible moment and give them the lead. In the final, Piscotty rode in five runs and Canha and Semien each added a pair, accounting for 60% of A’s season-high scoring output.
Piscotty’s slam set the tone for the series, including an impressive batflip. The A’s had not returned since 1952 to win from so far down in a game, and the Giants had not lost so much since 1929, before one of the clubs itself was in the Bay.
In addition to all that mischief, Canha also added an excellent defensive game. Filling in the stopping Ramon Laureano in center field, he made his best Laser impression by darting to the wall for a running, leaping prisoner, saves at least one run in the process.
After playing understudy to Piscotty on Friday, Canha took on the role of the primary hero on Saturday. This unbelievable homer, almost the maximum definition of coupling, ended any doubt that he is now the sole owner and owner of Oracle Park.
Sunday did not bring the same kind of drama, but it was still fun for fans of one site. The game was tight by four innings, but in the 5th the green and gold went full Hulk. They put 13 runners on the plate and scored nine runs, the most they have placed in an inning against a NL team since the 1929 World Series.
It was still a ballgame when the local stars came in, and then it was no more. With the score 4-2, Canha finished third in a pair, and Piscotty soon followed by hammering a three-run dancer. That made it 9-2, and Piscotty later added a few more on a double. His homer, however, was the most legal hit of the day, traveling 454 feet and ranked as the longest and hardest hit of his career.
And let’s not forget Semien. He may not have been at the center of the most memorable moments of the weekend, but he was nonetheless a quiet important ball, which is exactly his style. Saturday, his two-run homer opened the scoring for the day, even if the early lead didn’t stick.
The Giants also have a Bay Area representative in their lineup, in Brandon Crawford of Pleasanton. He homered on Sunday, but he made it out of rookie James Kaprielian in MLB’s latest debut. Crawford was the first occupier that Kaprielian ever defeated in the big, and he went on to the third field again. Jeez, man, that’s just cruel.
As for the A’s hitters, they continued to pile up special moments in a 2020 season that was full of them in just over three weeks. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect version of the (regular season) Bay Bridge Series, and we’ll probably never see one quite this good again. Two incredible comebacks and one absurd blowout, all in the hands of three local stars show off their peak powers for the showdown of rivalry. Gas, brake, round trip.
