The opportunities were few for the Oakland A’s on Monday, but
Kurt Suzuki was ready when he got his. His homer in the top of the
10th off Jesse Crain lifted the A’s to a 2-1 victory over the
Chicago White Sox in front of 20,057 fans at U.S. Cellular Field.
It marked the A’s third straight victory, and it was another
example of their ability to make a lot out of a little.
CHICAGO
The opportunities were few for the Oakland A’s on Monday, but Kurt Suzuki was ready when he got his.
His homer in the top of the 10th off Jesse Crain lifted the A’s to a 2-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox in front of 20,057 fans at U.S. Cellular Field.
It marked the A’s third straight victory, and it was another example of their ability to make a lot out of a little.
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Left-hander Mark Buehrle bottled them up for eight innings and held them hitless through five. The A’s managed just five hits total, yet claimed their fourth win in the past five games and evened their record at 5-5.
“We dropped too many of those last year, those 10-, 11-inning ballgames,” A’s starting pitcher Dallas Braden said. “We’d like to turn that ship around and be on the other end of that.”
The A’s went 4-7 in extra-inning affairs in 2010, the third-worst record in the American League. Good karma might be the only explanation for how they even extended Monday’s game past the ninth.
The Sox led 1-0 when Matt Thornton relieved Buehrle to start the ninth. Andy LaRoche greeted Thornton with a double. After Coco Crisp lined out, Daric Barton lofted a deep fly to the left-field corner.
Juan Pierre drifted to his right and had a bead on the ball, but it nearly missed his glove completely and went for a two-base error. That allowed pinch runner Cliff Pennington to score from second and tie it.
In the 10th, Suzuki got a 1-2 fastball from Crain (0-1) and lined a ball that barely cleared the left-field wall.
“He hit it hard enough, but you didn’t know if it was going to be high enough,” A’s manager Bob Geren said.
Suzuki was hitting just .185 (5 for 27) with one RBI entering the night. He broke up Buehrle’s no-hitter with a leadoff single in the sixth, then picked the perfect time for his first homer.
“It’s a big thrill, any time you can contribute and get a hit when it really counts,” Suzuki said.
The A’s are 4-1 in their past five games despite scoring just 11 runs over that span.
It figured runs might be tough to come by against Buehrle, who opposed Braden in the major leagues’ 21st matchup of starting pitchers who had thrown perfect games.
Each lefty impressed.
Braden held the Sox to five hits over six innings. His only mistake came on Brent Lillibridge’s two-out homer in the fifth.
Buehrle didn’t allow a base runner until Barton walked with one out in the fourth. Buehrle received a nice ovation after allowing Suzuki’s single in the sixth—the ninth time in his career he’s carried a no-hitter past the fifth.
“(It was) the same thing Buehrle always does,” Suzuki said. “He changes speeds, he gets ahead. People say he throws a lot of junk, but he’s an aggressive strike-thrower.”
The A’s unsung hero of the night: Tyson Ross. He hadn’t made an appearance in five games since being called up from Triple-A Sacramento, but Ross delivered three shutout innings in relief of Braden and got the victory.
He struck out four, mixing a fastball that reached 95 mph with a slider that had hitters chasing.
“Nothing short of phenomenal,” Braden said of Ross.
Brian Fuentes recorded a 1-2-3 10th for his third save in three days.
— Story by Joe Stiglich, Contra Costa Times
