Oakland Blanks Detroit After Being Blanked. Oakland Wins Game 3, 2-0
After losing both games at Detroit where Justin Verlander and the Tigers bullpen just really obliterated Oakland, the A’s returned home with hopes of getting their first win of the series. Brett Anderson would really leave his imprint in the beginning of the game in what to expect the rest of the way with striking out both Austin Jackson and Omar Infante; then forcing a Miguel Cabrera ground-out for a 1-2-3 inning. Anibal Sanchez still had a sub-par outing only giving up 5 hits with 2 runs scored, but Brett Anderson was just too much as he had a perfect 0.00 ERA giving up only two hits.
To correlate with Anderon’s great pitching, the A’s would provide good hitting as Coco Crisp singled to right followed by a Stephen Drew walk. With two men on as Crisp was in scoring position, Yoenis Cespedes would single to center driving in Crisp to give the Oakland their first score. In the next inning we would see the play of the night and post-season thus far as Prince Fielder would hit a single to deep left which could have potentially been a HR but Coco Crisp robbed him of the homer in a difficult wall bouncing catch.
The story of last night’s game would be the Athletics fielding saving the day time and time again robbing hitters of singles, doubles and homers throughout the entire game. Designated-hitter, Seth Smith would hit a solo homer to center (414 ft.) to give the A’s a little breathing room in the bottom of the fifth inning. Grant Balfour would then get the save to get the Athletics first win of the series.
Tiger’s pitcher Max Scherzer has been penciled in for game 4 with Justin Verlander to follow if there’s a game 5. It’s going to be extremely difficult for the Athletics to win two more games in a row but the plus side is that they’re playing at home. A.J. Griffin will pitch in game 4 with Jarrod Parker following suit for a potential game 5. Game 4 comes on tonight at 9:37pm ET on the MLB Network.