Bay Bridge series finale: A’s squander late opportunities as Oakland falls in extra innings

OAKLAND – With the bases loaded and no outs in the bottom of the 10th inning, the Oakland A’s had a chance to close out the Bay Bridge Series with one more A’s victory in the Coliseum.

Instead, three Oakland batters struck out in order to close out the 4-2 loss in front of over 32,000 fans hailing from across Northern California.

Oakland manager Mark Kotsay wasn’t in the dugout to see that or to watch Jerar Encarnacion and Michael Conforto hit back-to-back 10th-inning home runs to lead the Giants to victory.

Kotsay was in the A’s spacious clubhouse to end the 148th and final matchup between the two Bay Area teams after an eighth-inning blow-up got the third-year manager ejected.

After seeing Daz Cameron take a borderline pitch for a strike before grounding out with the bases loaded in a tied ballgame, starting pitcher JP Sears was called for a pitch clock violation to start the eighth.

Kotsay briefly emerged from the dugout, argued with umpire Emil Jimenez in foul territory and then was tossed from the game.

“We just had a little disagreement on the 3-0 pitch, and the zone was a little inconsistent.” Kotsay said. “I thought the 3-0 pitch was above the zone, and it was the biggest pitch of the game. I probably got emotional in that situation, but I felt like at that point in the game, it dictated the outcome.”

A day after Osvaldo Bido took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and on an afternoon that the A’s passed out Vida Blue bobbleheads, Sears gave The Town one more great pitching performance in the last edition of the Bay Bridge Series.

Sears made Giants hitters and their multi-colored bats look silly all afternoon as the 28-year-old went 7 and 2/3 innings and struck out nine in front 32,727.

“I’m just trying to keep guys off the changeup, and I feel like I did a good job last time with them,” Sears said. “So mixing in the fastball and change up combo was good again today.”

The A’s, bound for Sacramento in 2025, finished with a 76-72 regular season record against the Giants, and a 42-32 record in the Coliseum.

“It’s special for the fans and for the guys, with this being the last hurrah here,” said Seth Brown, the last remaining member from the 2020 playoff team. “It’s a cool environment … I was happy the guys were able to experience it the way it is when it gets as loud as it gets here when there’s a lot of fans.”

Facing Blake Snell, the Giants ace who entered Sunday with a 0.99 ERA in his last seven starts, the A’s took until the sixth inning to get on the board. Miguel Andujar lined a single to right and drove in Cameron to break a scoreless deadlock.

That gave Sears, who took the mound for Oakland having won his last three starts and having pitched seven innings in each outing, a brief lead.

Giants All-Star Heliot Ramos rocked his 18th homer of the season to lead off the top of the seventh and tie the game at 1-1.

With former A’s manager Bob Melvin in the Giants dugout, the visitors sent Snell out for the seventh, and he promptly loaded the bases with a single and two walks with one out.

After Cameron worked a 3-0 count, he took two strikes and then grounded to second for the third out. Neither team scored in the eighth or ninth to send the game into extras. Max Schuemann drove in one run after the Giants homers, but his first hit in 17 at-bats wasn’t enough to rally as the A’s stranded runners on all three bases.

San Francisco’s late-game homers overshadowed also another excellent outing from Sears.

The left-hander was sharp early, allowing just two baserunners through three innings. On both occasions, the Giants runners were cut down on laser throws by Cameron and catcher Shea Langeliers on their way to second.

The A’s ended up throwing out four Giants baserunners in the game, a crucial stat considering they were facing arguably the hottest pitcher in the league.

The A’s batters, which entered the game ranked seventh in MLB in home runs with 154, didn’t show much power against the red-hot Snell. Oakland didn’t record its first hit until Schuemann plopped a soft single into left with two outs in the third.

Sears was part of a rare 1-3 double play in the fourth inning. He ranged over from the mound to catch a skyscraping popup, and then fired a bullet to first base to double up Giants shortstop Tyler Fitzgerald.

“The sun being a factor here, I thought Darell (Hernaiz) was going to get the ball but saw that he lost it,” Sears said. “I was just trying to make a play, and then knowing the guy is on first was trying to get off the bag enough to get to second, I was trying to make a good play.”

The game flew by at a rapid pace, the first five innings played in a little over an hour as neither Sears nor Snell showed any sign of slowing down until late.

Oakland will play host to Tampa Bay on Monday, with RHP Joe Boyle (2-5, 7.39) the probable starter against Taj Bradley (6-7, 3.49).