Oakland Athletics Rally With 5 in 8th To Tie Dodgers; Russell Hurts Hamstring
By Phil Watson
Mar 10, 2014; Phoenix, AZ, USA; Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Jarrod Parker (11) throws in the first inning against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Camelback Ranch. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
If spring training is any indication, Oakland Athletics fans should be ready for lots of free baseball in 2014.
For the fourth time in 14 Cactus League games, the A’s played to a nine-inning tie on Monday, finishing deadlocked with the Los Angeles Dodgers 8-8 after scoring five runs in the eighth inning at Camelback Ranch.
Oakland batted around and picked up six hits and a walk in the eighth inning off Dodger relievers Brian Wilson and Carlos Frias after falling behind 8-3.
It was another rough outing for A’s starter Jarrod Parker, who allowed four runs in the first inning before settling down. He gave up four runs on four hits with a walk and struck out five in 4.2 innings to lower his spring ERA to 10.61. He was also touched up for two homers in the first.
Parker walked Carl Crawford with one out and gave up a single to Hanley Ramirez before serving up a three-run homer to Andre Ethier. One out later, Juan Uribe took Parker deep to left to put L.A. up 4-0.
The A’s came back to get a run back in the fifth on a leadoff homer by Michael Taylor—his second of the spring—off Dodger starter Hyun-Jin Ryu.
Oakland added two more in the sixth off reliever Brandon League. Nick Punto led off the inning with a walk and Josh Donaldson followed with his second home run in as many days to cut the Dodger lead to 4-3.
But Luke Gregerson ran into some problems in the bottom of the seventh for the A’s, surrendering a bases-clearing double to Miguel Olivo and an RBI single to Miguel Rojas as Los Angeles hung up four runs to take an 8-3 lead.
But Oakland battled back in the eighth. Addison Russell greeted Wilson with a double to center and scored on a single by Jose Martinez. After getting Luke Montz to fly out, Wilson was lifted in favor of Frias, who walked Nate Freiman to put runners at first and second.
Pinch-hitter Billy McKinney flared a single to right to score Martinez and move Freiman to third and Stephen Vogt’s single knocked in another run while leaving runners at the corners.
Darwin Perez reached on an infield single that scored McKinney and Alden Carrithers followed with a single to right to knock in the tying run. Matt Magill relieved Frias to finally stop the bleeding, striking out Billy Burns and getting Russell to ground into a force play.
Russell strained his right hamstring running out the play and left the field at the end of the game on a cart in order to not have to walk back to the team bus. He will be evaluated on Tuesday.
Arnold Leon worked a 1-2-3 eighth for the A’s, who went down in order in the top of the ninth. After another 1-2-3 frame by Leon, the game was called.
Joe Savery struck out the only batter he faced for Oakland and Dan Otero worked a scoreless sixth, allowing two hits. Gregerson was touched for four runs on four hits and two walks while recording just one out and Deryk Hooker got out of the seventh, retiring the only two hitters he faced. Leon struck out three of the six hitters he faced.
The A’s finished with 11 hits, two by Donaldson, who has pushed his spring average up to .238 by going 3-for-5 the last two days.
Oakland travels to the Peoria Sports Complex on Tuesday to face the San Diego Padres at 1:05 p.m. Pacific.