A's 'got some magic going' with another rally

It might be a good idea for the A’s to just begin every game thinking it’s the ninth inning going forward.

For the second day in a row, the A’s entered the ninth inning trailing by multiple runs against the Giants. And for a second straight day, they came out on top, this time a 7-6 win over the Giants at Oracle Park on Mark Canha’s go-ahead three-run shot in the ninth off Giants closer Trevor Gott.

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Canha somehow managed to top Stephen Piscotty’s game-tying grand slam in the ninth off Gott from Friday night’s win in terms of drama. The A’s entered the ninth on Saturday trailing by three and were down to their final strike when Canha crushed a 2-2 fastball left up in the zone by Gott into the left-field bleachers. Liam Hendriks then finished it out by recording his Major League-leading seventh save of the year.

The victory was Oakland’s 12th in its last 14 games, keeping the A’s atop the American League West standings by four games over second-place Texas.

Asked of his approach facing Gott in the ninth, Canha kept it honest instead of going to the usual clichés often given by players after such big moments.

“I was trying to go deep,” Canha said. “Just hit a homer and win this game. Try to get something up in the zone. I knew [Gott] liked to throw that breaking ball and didn’t want to chase that. Just get a good pitch and hit it into the left-field bleachers.”

The ninth-inning rally was nearly an exact replica of the one they pulled off the previous night. Sean Murphy led off the ninth against Gott with a solo shot -- much like Matt Olson’s solo shot with one out that began a five-run ninth on Friday night. Saturday’s four-run rally also consisted of a double by Tony Kemp and two-out walk drawn by Olson to set up runners at the corners for Canha.

“Similar to Olson’s homer last night. All of sudden we score some runs off the same guy from the night before,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We continued to have some good at-bats. Mark had good numbers off him and felt good. Everybody felt good about the at-bat.”

The A's have had a knack for mounting late comebacks this season, but what has transpired over the last two days is otherworldly. After Saturday’s thriller, the A’s have now won back-to-back games when trailing by three or more runs after eight innings for just the second time in Oakland history. They did it twice in one season back in 2011.

“We’ve got some magic going right now. I don’t really know what to say,” Canha said. “It’s kind of contagious. We go into that ninth inning knowing that if we just string a few at-bats together and give ourselves a chance, we like what we’re doing right now at the plate. We never say die.”

Manaea takes a positive step

Lost in the craziness of Saturday’s late-inning drama were signs of a turnaround for Sean Manaea, who was off to a rough start with a 9.00 ERA through his first four outings.

Manaea took a step in the right direction as he tries to break his early-season funk. The left-hander completed five innings for the first time this season, limiting San Francisco to three runs (two earned) on three hits and a walk with five strikeouts.

Manaea’s struggles have come through the middle innings, specifically his second time through the opposing team’s batting order. After facing the minimum through the first three innings on Saturday, all of his runs allowed came in the fourth on what was essentially a “little league home run” after a ball lined to right field by Mike Yastrzemski was mishandled by Piscotty, then thrown into the stands by Marcus Semien on a relay for a play that was officially ruled a two-run triple and an error on Semien that allowed Yastrzemski to score the third run.

With no outs in the inning at the time of the play, Manaea regrouped and retired the next six batters he faced to end his day on a high note. He fared much better facing Giants hitters a second time in a game than his previous four outings, holding San Francisco’s hitters to 2-for-8 with a triple and a walk their second time through the order.

“This was his best and most effective outing,” Melvin said. “I was only going to let him go about 85 pitches. It’s a good confidence-builder for him.”

The key for Manaea was the changeup, a pitch he had trouble finding a good feel for this season. On Saturday, the changeup was Manaea’s second-most thrown pitch. He threw the changeup for 25 of his 78 pitches, generating 16 swinging strikes and three called strikes with the pitch. His fastball velocity was also up, touching 93 mph at times after sitting 90-91 mph for most of the season.

Olson ensured Manaea could not be charged with a loss after smacking a solo homer off Giants starter Kevin Gausman in the fifth that tied the game at 3. The fifth-inning blast was his seventh consecutive hit that has resulted in a homer. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this is only the second time since the A’s moved to Oakland that they’ve had a batter have seven straight hits all going for home runs. The previous time was also Olson, in September 2017.