A’s beat Giants 2-0

Close win for the good guys

The A’s came out on top of the Giants tonight, beating their cross-bay rivals in a close 2-0 win in what marks the second to last time these two will meet as cross-bay rivals.

Pitching Duel Early

With righty rookies Osvaldo Bido and Hayden Birdsong on the mound, you would be forgiven for expecting some offense in tonight’s game. Instead we had ourselves an old fashioned pitchers duel for the first half of this game. Neither rookie blinked as both matched each other for four innings tonight. All Oakland could manage was a Seth Brown single and a Darell Hernaiz walk against the Giants’ #2 prospect making just his ninth career start as a major league pitcher.

While that’s impressive Oakland’s own rookie right-hander was even better, going hitless through the game’s first five frames. It wasn’t until the fifth that San Francisco finally got their first baserunner via a walk, and then the sixth saw the Giants get their first hit against Bido, a swinging bunt single that broke up the no-no. That was followed up by a walk to give SF their first scoring chance against Oakland tonight. A mound visit seemed to do the trick as Bido struck out the next batter and induced a line out to end the threat and inning.

That would ultimately do it for Bido’s night as he finished at 91 pitches through six scoreless innings with just one hit and two walks allowed, improving on what was his best start last time out against Toronto. Is Bido figuring things out before our eyes? He’s turning himself into an interesting arm to keep an eye on the rest of the way…

Finally, some scoring!

It took a while but the runs came. Back-to-back singles to open up the bottom of the fifth gave Oakland their first real scoring opportunity tonight. Hernaiz bunted to move the runner over but shortstop Max Schuemann walked to load the bases with one down for Lawrence Butler, and he made sure that his team would walk away with something:

Love the approach from the young outfielder here, making sure to lift that ball and get enough to at least bring in the runner from third. Designated hitter Brent Rooker was right behind him so anything other than a possible double play grounder was acceptable, though Rook would ground out to end the chance at adding on.

The A’s would get that add on chance the very next inning. With Miguel Andujar on second with two outs, Seth Brown came to the plate for the third time tonight and collected his third hit, this one an RBI single to double the Oakland lead to 2-0.

Bullpen holds on

With Bido’s day over it would be up to the bullpen to secure the final nine outs, with just a two-run lead to play with. First up was lefty veteran Scott Alexander, who got two outs but also allowed a hit and a walk to put the game-tying run on base. Manager Mark Kotsay made a bold move next, yanking the veteran Alexander and sending in right-hander Grant Holman for his major league debut in a sticky situation. Holman has been utterly dominant in the minors this year but this was still a big situation to throw in someone for their debut. The rookie came through for his club, getting a groundout to second to end the threat. Holman came on to start the eighth and collected the his first career strikeouts, the first of many:

Then it was time for another pitching change, this time for another veteran lefty in TJ McFarland, who breezed through the rest of the eighth. Three outs to go.

It would be Michel Otañez on for the chance to close the door on the Giants, his first career save opportunity. Otañez didn’t come into the year with a lot of eyes on him but he’s been adequate in his short time with the club, and he’d been on a roll entering tonight. The ninth was a roller coaster as Otañez struck out the first two Giants batters before the next two got on base. Another mound visit to settle the rookie down and another swinging strikeout ended this game in fashion, securing Oakland’s win against their rivals.

Whew. Got a bit dicey at the end there but we pulled through. Tonight was a close but hard fought victory over a Giants team trying to claw their way into the playoffs. Motivation at this time of year isn’t always easy to come by for a rebuilding team like the A’s but the packed crowd seemed to give them all the energy to fight and take tonight’s win. Bido was awesome, we got some clutch hits when we needed them, and the bullpen held together for the final frames to secure the win. Plus, now the Giants are under .500 after tonight’s loss.

Tomorrow’s the day, folks. Quite possibly the final time the Oakland Athletics will face the San Francisco Giants. The Green & Gold will have a chance to end the Bay Bridge Series with a sweep of their rivals. The end of an era. It’ll be a battle of left-handers as Oakland will trot out JP Sears while the Giants will send out Blake Snell. Should be another good one in front of a packed crowd!