'Gut-wrenching': Ginn takes no-no into ninth only to give up walk-off home run

ANAHEIM – At 8:57 p.m. on Monday, J.T. Ginn began the ninth inning at Angel Stadium three outs away from etching his name in Athletics lore forever. At 9:01 p.m., he dejectedly walked off the mound, watching Zach Neto round the bases in elation while the ballpark lights flickered.

Four minutes. That’s all it took to turn a dream outing into a nightmare for Ginn. After dominating the Angels for eight hitless innings, the right-hander lost his bid for the 14th no-hitter in franchise history on a leadoff single by Adam Frazier. Three pitches later, Neto hammered a soul-crushing two-run walk-off homer to center field to sink the A’s for a 2-1 loss.

Per Elias, Ginn joins Rich Hill as only the second pitcher in the last 40 seasons to throw a complete-game, walk-off loss after allowing zero hits over the first eight innings. Hill was perfect through eight innings and had a no-hitter going through nine before allowing a home run to begin the bottom of the 10th on Aug. 23, 2017.

Ginn was having the performance of his life through eight innings. He made several Angels hitters look silly with 14 whiffs and 10 strikeouts, nine of which were swinging.

All Ginn was waiting for was a run, as the A’s were also scoreless through eight. That run finally came in the ninth, when Lawrence Butler came off the bench and knocked home Zack Gelof with an RBI single.

“For us, to squeak across that run in the ninth,” A’s catcher Shea Langeliers said. “It kind of felt like we could breathe there for a second.”

That breather was short-lived. Once Frazier led off the ninth with a single, left-hander Hogan Harris immediately started getting loose in the A’s bullpen. Manager Mark Kotsay planned to bring in Harris to face Trout, who was due up after Neto. Of course, that matchup never materialized.

“J.T. dominated all night,” Kotsay said. “For him to walk off the mound with a loss there, it hurts, obviously. He pitched probably the best game he’s pitched in his big league career. … I had full confidence in him that inning going out there at [99 pitches] and trying to get it done. It just didn’t work out.”

While the rest of Angel Stadium went berserk, you could hear a pin drop in the A’s dugout. Players and coaches were heartbroken for Ginn as they awaited his return. Langeliers remained seated on the bench for several minutes, looking out to the pitcher’s mound in silence.

“J.T. did such a phenomenal job all night keeping guys off balance,” Langeliers said. “His stuff was nasty. He was just rolling. It’s gut-wrenching stuff in the ninth for it to end that way. It sucks right now. Baseball will humble you in all sorts of ways. That’s why the season is 162 games. It’s going to be hard to flush this one, but we have to.”

Kotsay immediately embraced Ginn with a hug, holding the 26-year-old righty close as they both walked down the steps into the A’s clubhouse.

“Just that he pitched great,” an emotional Kotsay said of his message to Ginn. “He had a great night. That’s about it.”

The A’s, still in first place in the AL West but now under .500 (23-24) for the first time since April 10, had a chance to provide Ginn extra breathing room in the ninth. But after loading the bases with one out, Nick Kurtz grounded into an inning-ending double play, capping a night in which the A’s stranded 11 runners on base and went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position.

“Bases loaded with one out and our best hitter up,” Kotsay said. “Kurtz doesn’t hit the ball on the ground a ton. They get out of that inning, and momentum shifted a little bit.”

As painful a result as it was for Ginn, he still emerged from the A’s clubhouse with his head high, knowing that he didn’t give in. He attacked hitters from start to finish. Even after Frazier’s single on an 0-2 count, Ginn hurled a good 2-0 sinker down in the zone to Neto, but the Angels shortstop put a better swing on it.

“It’s just a crazy game that we play,” Ginn said. “Obviously, a tough game. You just keep your head up and keep moving forward. It’s just the nature of the game that we play. I attacked the zone and I’ll live with that.”