Keibert Ruiz led off the bottom of the ninth with a game-winning home run as the Washington Nationals beat the visiting Oakland Athletics 3-2 on Saturday night.
Ruiz’s 14th homer of the season came off Lucas Erceg (2-3).
Lane Thomas tied the game with a pinch-hit, bases-loaded single before the Athletics recorded and out in the eighth inning. Yet despite the bases loaded without an out, the Nationals didn’t score again.
Kyle Finnegan (6-3) was the winning pitcher with one inning of relief.
Brent Rooker and JJ Bleday homered for the Athletics, who lost for the eighth time in their last 11 games.
Rooker’s 19th homer of the season came off Nationals starter Jake Irvin and put the Athletics ahead in the sixth inning.
Luis Medina made it through four innings as Oakland’s starting pitcher. He allowed one run on four hits and two walks. He struck out four and had better control than his most-recent start, but left without picking up a pitching victory for his fourth straight game.
Outfielder Lawrence Butler, a highly rated Athletics prospect, played in his second major league game. He posted his first career hit with a seventh-inning double.
Oakland had runners at second and third with no outs in the seventh but didn’t score. Jose Ferrer came from the Nationals bullpen to notch the last out of the inning and dose the threat.
Irvin worked 6 2/3 innings, charged with two runs on seven hits without a walk. He struck out six.
The Nationals scored first on Alex Call’s fielder’s choice grounder. Contributing to the run that inning was a single from Blake Rutherford, who recorded his first major league hit after going 0-for-16 following his promotion from Triple-A.
Rutherford ended up 2-for-3.
Bleday homered in the third inning to knot the score at 1-1. It was his 10th home run of the season and his second long ball in four games.
The Nationals loaded the bases with one out in the fourth and didn’t convert.
–Field Level Media