OAKLAND — Late-inning dramatics are becoming commonplace these days for the Oakland Athletics.
Jed Lowrie hit his second home run of the game with two outs in the 11th inning and the A’s beat the Los Angeles Angels 3-2 on Monday night for their third straight walk-off win.
“It certainly never gets old,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Once you get one and you come out the next day and you get in that same position, there’s still that carry-over feeling. Today it was the same thing even though it took us a little bit longer.
Lowrie got Oakland on the board with a solo shot in the fourth inning and ended it with a drive to right field off Deolis Guerra (2-2) that sent the A’s pouring out of the dugout in celebration again.
This win followed dramatic comebacks against Detroit that were capped by Adam Rosales’ game-ending single Saturday and Ryon Healy’s homer on Sunday. Oakland has three consecutive walk-off wins for the first time since June 2004.
“Minus some big postseason games, this is about as exciting of a stretch of baseball as I’ve been a part of,” Lowrie said
Liam Hendricks (1-0) pitched two scoreless innings as the A’s won for the fourth time in five games.
Kendall Graveman and Ricky Nolasco faced each other for the third time already this season — Graveman won the season opener for Oakland, and Nolasco took the initial rematch later in April. This time, they both ended up with a no-decision.
The Angels broke on top when Luis Valbuena hit a two-run homer in the first, but Graveman didn’t allow anything else over the next six innings as he relied heavily on his offspeed pitches.
“We threw 20-plus changeups tonight, something we hadn’t done all year, and it was good,” Graveman said. “Was able to go deep in the ballgame, and we kind of needed that right now. The change of the game was when I was able to throw the changeup for strikes.”
The Athletics tied it with solo homers from Lowrie in the fourth and Trevor Plouffe in the fifth . Nolasco has allowed 11 homers this season, with 14 of the 19 runs he has given up coming on homers. But he was otherwise strong, striking out 10 batters in seven innings for his first double-digit strikeout game since 2013.
“Tonight we pitched really well,” manager Mike Scioscia said. “There’s probably three pitches we didn’t get quite where we wanted and they ended up out of the park.”
TRAINER’S ROOM
Angels: OF Mike Trout sat out for the fourth time in five games because of a tight left hamstring. GM Billy Eppler said an MRI came back “clean and normal” and Trout said he feels better each day but there is no set date for his return. … SS Andrelton Simmons got hit by a pitch in the first and left an inning later with a bruised left hand and right thumb. X-rays were negative and he is day to day.
Athletics: OF Rajai Davis got the night off to rest. Davis came off the DL last week for a hamstring injury, and Melvin doesn’t want to push him too hard. … C Josh Phegley (concussion) took part in an extended spring training game in Arizona.
DEEP SLUMP
Angels 2B Danny Espinosa entered after Simmons got hurt, with Cliff Pennington moving to shortstop. Espinosa went 0 for 4, extending his hitless streak to 31 at-bats.
SWING AND A MISS
Oakland’s Khris Davis struck out all four times he came to the plate, giving him 41 Ks in 31 games.
UP NEXT
Jharel Cotton (3-3) looks for some nighttime success when he starts the second game of the series for Oakland. Cotton is 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA during the day and 0-3 with an 8.36 ERA at night. Alex Meyer (0-1) takes the mound for the Angels.
