J.T. Ginn had both a magical and heartbreaking night when he took the mound against the Los Angeles Angels last month.
The right-hander will seek a different ending when the Athletics host the Angels on Saturday night at West Sacramento, Calif.
Ginn took a no-hitter into the ninth inning in Anaheim, Calif., on May 18, and it took just two batters for the game to end badly for him.
Adam Frazier led off the frame with a single to center field to break up the no-hit bid. Zach Neto followed with a mammoth walk-off homer to center to give Los Angeles a stunning 2-1 victory.
Ginn struck out a career-best 10 that night. He walked one batter and hit one.
The 27-year-old Ginn (5-3, 2.91 ERA) has won three straight decisions and is unbeaten in his last four starts. He defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday when he gave up one unearned run and six hits over six innings in an 11-2 victory.
Ginn is 1-2 with a 3.71 ERA in three career starts against the Angels. Neto (2-for-8) is one of two Los Angeles players to homer against him. Nolan Schanuel (2-for-5) is the other.
On Friday, it was the Angels dealing with heartbreak as the Athletics used a ferocious rally to make it two straight wins to start the four-game set.
Los Angeles matched its season high of five homers and scored 11 consecutive runs at one point before the Athletics scored the final eight to register a 12-11 victory in 10 innings.
“That’s baseball,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said afterward. “It’s the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows. I think the beautiful thing about baseball is you come back, get ready to do it again tomorrow.”
The Angels fell to a woeful 7-of-23 in save opportunities, and the bullpen served up two-run homers in three consecutive innings. The most painful one occurred when A’s pinch hitter Jonah Heim hit a two-run tying homer with two outs in the ninth off Sam Bachman.
The Athletics won in the 10th when Nick Kurtz (0-for-4, four strikeouts) walked with the bases loaded against Samy Natera Jr.
“We know we have a really good offense, and no deficit is safe for the other team,” Heim said afterward. “So we just keep battling and keep going out there and putting good at-bats together, and we know the bullpen is going to come in and shut it down for us.”
Jacob Wilson, Lawrence Butler and Max Muncy also went deep for the Athletics. Zack Gelof had one hit to extend his career-best hitting streak to 23, the top active run in the majors.
Athletics manager Mark Kotsay watched the comeback from the clubhouse beyond the left-field fence. He was ejected for arguing balls and strikes in the bottom of the second inning.
“Nothing like watching it from your office,” Kotsay said. “Yeah, remarkable for a team to be down 11-4 and come all the way back and win a game like that. It says a lot about the group. They easily could have shut it down, but these guys kept grinding.”
Jose Siri and Logan O’Hoppe each slammed three-run homers for the Angels, who lost for the fifth time in six games. Denzer Guzman, Neto and Schanuel also hit blasts.
The Angels also hit five homers during a 7-1 road victory over the New York Yankees on April 14.
On Saturday, Los Angeles will turn to impressive rookie right-hander Walbert Urena (4-5, 2.60 ERA), who started against Ginn in the May 18 contest and gave up four hits over six scoreless innings.
Urena, 22, had won three straight decisions before falling to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday. He gave up four runs (three earned) and seven hits over a career-high seven innings in the 4-3 game.
–Field Level Media
