Game 60 Provides a Good Finish to Regular Season for Athletics' Davis and Pinder
Even before rallying late to score a 6-2 win that locked up the second seed for the upcoming American League playoffs, the A’s got a couple of things done Sunday that had been on their wish list.
They got Chad Pinder back from the injured list and four plate trips. He hadn’t played in a game since Sept. 12 because of a hamstring injury.
And they A’s saw Khris Davis, in a season-long slump, single in his first at-bat with a man on second base. It didn’t produce an RBI, but Tommy La Stella, who’d held up at third on the single to center, eventually came home on a Mark Canha grounder for Oakland’s first run, at that point tying the game at 1-1.
It was Davis, in particularly, to whom manager Bob Melvin was referring to after the game when he said “A couple of them got some big hits to get to a certain threshold.”
That hit got Davis, who has been relatively hot in September despite his minimalist overall batting average, got the average up to .200 for the first time this season. Rather than risk his average falling back under .200, Melvin lifted him for Pinder in the third inning.
Melvin said the trainers didn’t want Pinder testing the hamstring on defense, but hitting and running the bases was permissible, so Pinder took over at DH in the third inning.
And in the sixth inning he delivered a single to right that tied the game, bringing in Sean Murphy, who had doubled high off the right field wall.
“We’ve missed him, for sure,” Melvin said. “And he’s obviously a huge personality in our locker room. He’s been around, he knows how we do things and he’s always prepared for it.
“He buys in, and brings a lot of leadership.”
Melvin could use pinder as a right-handed bat playing third base, but that may be harder to do with Jake Lamb having done well against both right-hander and lefties. It was Lambs homer that put the A’s up 3-2 in the seventh Sunday in Game 60.
Davis wound up hitting .296 for the month of September, leading Melvin to suggest that he was an overlooked asset in the A’s arsenal for the postseason.
“It’s probably more against left-handed pitch as far as starting goes,” Melvin said of Davis. “If you look at the month of September for Khris, it’s probably been his best month. He’s worked awfully hard to create some new mechanics and I think it’s paid off.”
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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