OAKLAND, Calif. — When the ball exited the bat of Shea Langeliers at a rapid rate, the towering blast was going to go over the fence in left field.
But would it stay fair or hook foul?
Given how things are transpiring for the Mariners, not even a small tornado dropping into the Oakland Coliseum could’ve forced the ball foul.
With his teammates spilling out of the dugout to help will the ball to stay fair, Langeliers watched as it stayed true and inside the foul pole for a homer and a 5-4 walk-off victory over the Mariners on Monday.
It was Langeliers second homer of the game and his 24th of the season. He basically beat the Mariners by himself.
Logan Gilbert pitched six innings, allowing four runs on four hits with a walk and nine strikeouts.
Almost all of the A’s production against him came with two outs in a regrettable and frustrating third inning for Gilbert after his teammates provided him a 3-0 lead, highlighted by Cal Raleigh’s two-run homer in the first inning.
After retiring eight of the first nine batters he faced, including a strikeout of Tyler Nevin and a lineout to Max Schuemann to start the third, Gilbert lost a lengthy at-bat with A’s leadoff hitter Lawrence Butler despite being up 0-2.
Butler wouldn’t swing at chase pitches out of the zone and fouled off a 99-mph fastball and nasty splitter below the zone. Gilbert tried a 2-2 slider, but the pitch stayed on the inner half of the plate and was launched into right-center field for a double.
Brent Rooker jumped on a first-pitch slider from Gilbert in a similar location, sending a line drive into the left-field corner for a double to score Butler.
Facing J.J. Bleday, Gilbert again got up 0-2, but fired four off-speed pitches — two splitters and two sliders out of the zone — that went for balls and a walk.
For the third time in the inning, a slider that stayed in the middle of the plate cost Gilbert. After missing with a first-pitch curveball to Langeliers, Gilbert came back with a slider that was supposed to be on the outside corner and instead hung in the middle of the zone. Langeliers crushed it onto the steps in left field for a three-run homer and a 4-3 lead.
Irritated, but unshaken, Gilbert struck out Seth Brown to end the inning. It was the first of 10 consecutive hitters retired by Gilbert to close out his outing after six innings.
His teammates picked him up by tying the game in the top of the sixth. Julio Rodriguez singled and stole second. He later scored on Justin Turner’s single to left field.