Davis slugs 29th homer as A's clinch series

Designated hitter leads MLB with 8 homers in 2nd half; Melvin earns 600th A's win

August 1st, 2018

OAKLAND -- The non-waiver Trade Deadline came and went Tuesday, and the A's, silent in the hours leading up to it, quietly kept winning.
collected home run No. 29, giving him a Major League-leading eight since the All-Star break, and the A's locked down a 6-2 series-clinching victory over the Blue Jays behind at the Coliseum.
The win, No. 600 in manager Bob Melvin's tenure with the A's, brought them within one game of an American League Wild Card spot. They're 29-10 since June 16, tops in the Majors in that span.
"We felt all along we'd get better, and the group feels like they can do big things," Melvin said. "We're looking at Aug. 1 right now. There's a lot of games left to be played. I don't think anything surprises the team with where we are right now. They're looking to do better things as we go along, and we seem to get better as the season goes along."

Davis also picked up a run-scoring single in the sixth to push his RBI count to 84, second-most in the American League -- including 29 this month, second most in Oakland history for July.
Cahill, mostly shaky in his first three starts off the DL, made the most of his fourth, holding the Blue Jays to two runs and five hits over six innings while the offense went to work. Questions surrounding the rotation translated to a persistent search for pitching help ahead of the Deadline, leading to the July 21 pickup of ; otherwise, the A's stood pat.
"I like our guys," Cahill said. "I feel like we always give the team a shot to win, and it might not be the big-name guys or the big-price guys like some other teams have, but with our offense and our bullpen, if we all just do our part, we'll be fine."

The A's took advantage of a pair of leadoff walks from Toronto righty Sam Gaviglio, getting a two-run double from for a 2-1 lead in the opening inning. Olson doubled again in the third following Davis' blast, scoring on 's two-bagger. Canha landed on third when singled, and they teamed up for a double steal to bring in another run.
"It was kind of a play I knew I was capable of making, having done it before, and it was kind of like déjà vu as it was happening, and it was like a very instinctual play," Canha said. " I just kind of went for it. It was a little bit of a gamble, but I think the fact I had made the play in the past gave me the confidence to just go for it."

SOUND SMART
Melvin became the fourth manager in franchise history to reach 600 wins with the A's, joining Connie Mack, Tony La Russa and Art Howe.
"I'm appreciative to be here as long as I've been here, to the people that make those decisions, so I thank them and then at some point in time probably reflect on it," Melvin said.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
's inning-ending play in the eighth inning was absolutely sensational. The A's stud third baseman, positioned where a shortstop plays in the shift, ranged to his normal position at third and backhanded a chopper off the bat of and threw him out -- quite easily, in fact.
"You wanna say video game-ish, but I don't know that a video game has seen that before," Melvin said. "Even talking to [Chad] Pinder and Olson, the guys that have seen him the most, they're like, I don't know what to say about that. Off the bat, there's just no way, one, he's going to get to it, and two, maybe he tries to go to second, but he flips it over to first and gets him easily. We just keep seeing highlight reels from him."

HE SAID IT
"They play the game the right way. They always have hard-nosed players who bust it. They have a tremendous bullpen and they have some good hitters in that lineup." -- Toronto manager John Gibbons, on the A's
UP NEXT
Lefty (9-7, 3.46 ERA) will be on the mound when the A's close out this three-game set with the Blue Jays on Wednesday. Toronto will counter with right-hander in the 12:35 p.m. PT meeting at the Coliseum. Manaea faced the Blue Jays north of the border on May 19, allowing four runs in five innings.