A’s Walk-Off Braves 5-4

A little excitement for a Thursday evening!

The A’s took the series two games to one against the Braves with a victory in the finale on Thursday evening, beating the Braves in walk-off fashion 5-4 to put a nice bow on a fun series against our NL East foes. Get ready for the Blue Jays to come to town tomorrow.

The Athletics jumped out to an early lead against Atlanta starting pitcher Spencer Strider. Following Brent Rooker’s first double of the game and a Nick Kurtz walk, left fielder Tyler Soderstrom stepped to the plate with two outs and absolutely demolished the first pitch he saw from Strider, sending it over the right field wall to give the Green & Gold the early 3-0 lead:

Home run #16 on the year for Sodey. The power disappeared from him for a while but he now has two bombs in his last four games. The A’s would love it if he could find that early-season power stroke in the second half and this could be an early sign.

It was a hot start but things went silent from there for the Athletics offense. They managed to threaten here and there against Strider over the next five innings but never quite able to push their runner across home plate. That’d come back to bite them later on.

The A’s starting pitcher tonight was given an early lead thanks to his teammates. Lefty JP Sears has has a roller coaster of a season but came into tonight pitching well and looking to end his half on a high note. He was cruising early, not allowing a baserunner his first time through the order while collecting three strikeouts.

The second time through the Braves’ batting order was a bit tougher for the third-year left-hander. He started the fourth inning strong with back-to-back strikeouts of star players Ronald Acuna Jr. and Matt Olson. Then back-to-back doubles from Austin Riley and Sean Murphy cut into the A’s lead, and Jurickson Profar launched his third home run of the season over the left field wall to tie this game up. With four former Athletics in the Atlanta lineup one of them was bound to hurt us.

For a couple of innings this game was tied. Sears finished his evening with a 1-2-3 top of the fifth, ending it on a high with a strikeout of Acuna Jr.

• JP Sears: 5 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 1 HR, 86 pitches

One bad inning really screwed up Sears’ bottom line tonight but it was generally a quality outing from the 29-year-old. The lefty finished the half with three straight encouraging starts so fingers crossed he can take that momentum with him into the second half of the season. He ends the first half with a 4.79 ERA with an even 7-7 record to go with it.

Right-hander J.T. Ginn was the first one out of the bullpen and he tossed a 1-2-3 sixth in his first inning of work. He almost got through his second inning unscathed as well. But on his second pitch to second baseman Ozzie Albies he left a slider up too high in the zone and the 3-time All-Star blasted the Braves’ second home run of the game to give Atlanta a late one-run lead in Sacramento. Ginn was pulled after that in favor of Sean Newcomb, who got the final out of the frame.

Down to their last six outs and finally into the Atlanta bullpen, the A’s needed a big hit and fast. Leading off the eighth Nick Kurtz wasn’t playing around, blasting a game-tying solo home run to knot this one back up 4-4:

That blast also gave him sole possession of the home run lead among all rookies in baseball with 15 big flies. He likely won’t be snatching the Rookie of the Year award from teammate Jacob Wilson at this point but could easily finish in the top-5. His homer lead among rookies is even more impressive considering he started the year in Triple-A and spent some time on the A’s IL as well. Think he can reach 30 by year’s end?

Tied again. A’s closer Mason Miller came on for the top of the ninth and had a 1-2-3 inning, and Braves closer Raisel Iglesias matched Miller, sending this game to extras.

Now it was Justin Sterner’s time for the A’s. Starting the inning with the runner already on second base per the rules, the righty needed to induce some unproductive outs to maintain the tie. He was money, getting two strikeouts before a flyball ended the top of the 10th. The A’s couldn’t capitalize on their chance in the bottom half, with Rooker lining out into a double play to end the 10th. On to the 11th.

Sterner came back out for another inning and again was able to strand his inherited runner and give his team another chance at a walk-off win. The Braves walked Miguel Andujar (who was in his first game back from injury and was 0-for-4) with one out to instead go after Soderstrom in the bottom of the ninth. He made the Braves pay for it, sending ball into center field to bring Rooker around to score and end this game!

Celebrate! The A’s take the series against the Braves and reach their 39th win of the year, and it was a fun walk-off too. Sears wasn’t perfect but gave his team a chance to win. Soderstrom had three hits and accounted for almost all the offense tonight. Rooker looks ready for the Home Run Derby on Monday with two doubles in this one. The bullpen provided six innings and allowed just one home run. It was a fun night at the ballpark and fans get to take their Lawrence Butler bobbleheads home happy their team won.

The Athletics will begin their final series of the first half tomorrow evening when they welcome the Toronto Blue Jays to town for the first time, looking for their 40th victory of the season against third-best record in the AL. Right-hander Luis Severino will get the ball for the A’s looking to put one final positive touch on his first half wearing an Athletics uniform. He’s sporting a horrid 2-10 record with a 5.30 ERA but has pitched better than those numbers would suggest. He’ll have some tough competition on the opposing mound in future Hall-of-Famer Max Scherzer. The veteran righty has only appeared in four games with the Blue Jays in his first year in Toronto and has looked mortal but it’s Max Scherzer. He’ll bring a 4.76 ERA into tomorrow’s series opener.