A’s historic marathon ends in walkoff fashion

OAKLAND COLISEUM — A game which began Monday night finally ended Tuesday morning at 1:41 a.m. after a marathon 19-inning affair.

It took 6 hours and 32 minutes and Brandon Moss ended it on a walkoff two-run homer as the Athletics outlasted the Angels 10-8.

A’s manager Bob Melvin summed it up concisely:

A’s manager Bob Melvin

Audio: Ryan Leong/SFBay

“Good game to win, bad game to lose. We exhausted everything we had obviously. (Jerry) Blevins probably has one more inning in him and you might be looking at Seth Smith on the mound…To come down to your last player, it’d be a little demoralizing to lose.”

When asked if he knew the game was an Oakland franchise record for longest time of game, Moss said:

A’s first baseman Brandon Moss

Audio: Ryan Leong/SFBay

“You just keep fighting through and keep hoping they throw a ball into your bat. I don’t even know how I hit it. I was so late on everything after the 10th inning on…Heck yeah I believe it was 19 innings! (Almost) a seven hour game, of course I believe that was a record setting game…that was exhausting.”

In the loss, Angels first baseman Albert Pujols was 4-for-8 hitting two home runs and had three RBIs. Center fielder Josh Hamilton had a game to forget, 0-for-8 with three strikeouts. Mark Trumbo hit a tremendous home run in the second inning estimated at 475 feet. A’s players were still talking about that blast in the clubhouse after the win.

The Angels have tied their worst record to start a season at 9-16. Manager Mike Scioscia said:

“We gave it our all…it’s disappointing, it’s frustrating. Bottom line is winning a game and we weren’t able to do that tonight.”

It began innocently enough with starting pitchers Dan Straily and Tommy Hanson. In total, 16 pitchers were used and 597 pitches thrown.

The A’s clawed their way back twice after trailing 7-2.

Oakland scored four runs in the bottom of the 8th. Coco Crisp, Seth Smith, and Jed Lowrie all singled. Later Josh Donaldson’s two run single scored Lowrie and Cespedes. Josh Reddick capped the scoring for the frame with a run-scoring single.

In the ninth, Crisp with a lead-off walk. With two outs, Cespedes crushed a ball off the left-center field wall. But because he was admiring his hit instead of running, he was stuck at first base representing the winning run.

Brett Anderson — skipped for this start — made his first career relief appearance in the 12th. He ended up throwing 78 pitches in 5-1/3 innings of relief.

The Angels touched up Anderson in the 15th after a single from Mark Trumbo and a double by Howie Kendrick put runners at second and third. After an intentional walk to Chris Ianetta and a force out at the plate, the Halos scored the go-ahead run on a walk with the bases loaded to J.B. Shuck.

Trailing 8-7, the A’s didn’t give up. Donaldson reached base on a fielding error by Pujols who dropped the ball on the relay throw from second baseman Howie Kendrick.

Derek Norris walked, then Chris Young grounded into a double play to erase Donaldson at third. Young left the game with a strained left quad on the play, with Norris advancing to second.

Down to their last out, Adam Rosales kept the game alive with a run scoring single to center extending the game to the 16th inning.

The Angels bullpen proceeded to retire nine in a row after the game tying hit by Rosales.

In the 16th inning, Cespedes tried to end it on one swing of the bat, instead striking out mightily on a 95-mph fastball by reliever Michael Kohn.

To the bottom of the 19th when Smith walked to lead off the inning. With two outs after Lowrie grounded into a force out, Cespedes struck out again. Moss was the hero and homered to right on an 0-1 count off losing pitcher Barry Enright sending a few hundred die-hard fans home happy. It was Moss’s second home run of the game. He was 3-for-8 and struck out four times.

Relief pitcher Blevins got the win with 1-2/3 innings and said everyone went above and beyond the call of duty:

A’s pitcher Jerry Blevins

Audio: Ryan Leong/SFBay

“Those are stepping stones and milestones in a long season and you put it right, character builders for our ballclub. Everybody chipped in and everybody did more than their fair share and we came out victorious so it’s all good for everyone.”

Notes

It was the longest game in Athletics franchise history beating the previous record of 6:00 on August 9, 2002 at NY Yankees. … The 19 innings was third most innings in Oakland history as well. … This game also set the record for the longest time in Angels history. … The Athletics are 12-2 against the American League West but just 3-10 against everyone else (2-8 vs. AL East, 1-2 vs. AL Central). … It was Pujols 46th multi-homer game of his career. … Both teams combined for 31 hits and left 25 men on base.