OAKLAND, Calif. — The scoreboard at O.Co Coliseum said it all: “We Ain’t done yet!”
Coco Crisp singled in Seth Smith for the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 4 of the ALDS last night, giving the A’s a 4-3 win. The series is tied 2-2 with the deciding Game 5 tonight in Oakland.
“We’ve done it too many times down this road to feel like we weren’t going to win,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We just don’t feel like this is going to end for us.”
The A’s won in dramatic fashion, scoring three runs in the ninth off Detroit closer Jose Valverde. Oakland reliever Ryan Cook earned the victory.
“That’s why this is the greatest game of all,” Tigers manager Jim Leyland said. “It looked like we were going to get it. We didn’t do it. We didn’t quite get the 27 outs, that part of the game.”
The A’s, who had 14 walk-off wins in the regular season, wouldn’t give up and, as a result, earned their seventh postseason walk-off win in club history.
The A’s put together scoring threats in the sixth and eighth innings with nothing to show for their efforts, before breaking through in the ninth against the usually reliable Valverde, who finished sixth in the American League with 35 saves.
“They just hit [Valverde],” Leyland said. “They basically charged him and hit him. He probably didn’t get the ball located where he wanted to.”
Trailing 3-1 in the ninth, the winning rally was led off by Josh Reddick with a single to right field followed by a double in the right-center field gap by Josh Donaldson.
“Donaldson doubles, now the crowd’s into a frenzy and they’re into it big time,” Melvin said.
Smith then doubled in both runs to tie the game 3-3.
“It was really loud. My ears were hurting a little bit. [It was] a fastball that I got the barrel to,” Smith said of his at-bat.“We go out there and we play hard, and carefree and get the job done.”
Finally, Crisp sent a solid shot to right field that easily scored Smith, who was mobbed at home plate by his delirious teammates ase the home crowd erupted in jubilation.
“Yeah, it’s amazing. The guys in front of me obviously did a fantastic job of getting on base,” Crisp said. “These walk-offs have been our M.O. all year.”