The A's received a number of great performances in Tuesday night's 7-3 win over the Cardinals.
Matt Olson, Chad Pinder, and Marcus Semien all blasted home runs, and Khris Davis added a two-run double. But you could argue that the best showing of all belonged to Bob Melvin. The A's manager made all the right decisions, with just about every substitution working to perfection.
Melvin's first big move came in the bottom of the fourth inning when the Cardinals, already leading 3-1, put two men on base with only one out. Starting pitcher Chris Bassitt was laboring, having already thrown 94 pitches, so Melvin chose to turn to his bullpen early.
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He brought in recently-recalled right-hander J.B. Wendelken, who proceeded to retire Matt Carpenter and Paul DeJong -- the Cardinals' Nos. 1 and 2 hitters -- and get out of the jam.
"J.B. was huge," Melvin told reporters after the game. "He's not used to coming in the game like that. ... If that gets away from us right there, it's a whole different game."
Wendelken ended up only facing those two batters, but that was enough to earn him his first career win.
"It's a huge deal," he told reporters. "We were in a (position) to come back and win, without a doubt in my mind. But when you're asked to come into that situation, you're there to put out the fire and kind of carry us a little bit deeper into the game. Coming into that situation and having those boys come up and have the bats come alive was pretty awesome."
Bringing in Wendelken was actually only half of Melvin's first key move. The former National League manager made a double switch, also inserting Chad Pinder at second base, a decision that paid off the very next inning. Pinder blasted a two-run home run to the top deck in left field, also known as 'Big Mac Land,' to tie the game at three.
"You look for ways to try to get him in the game," Melvin said. "He's contributed to this team in so many different ways. To be able to come off the bench, he's used to doing that."
Pinder said it was the first time he's ever come into a game by way of a double switch.
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"It's an interesting situation to be in," he told reporters. "That could've played a role in going up to the plate with no thoughts in my head, just 'I'm going up there just to hit.' You don't have anything to think about. You're not dwelling on things before the game. You're not thinking about different things. You're just going up there trying to get a pitch to hit."
Later in the fifth, with the A's up 5-3, Melvin turned to his bench again. With two on and two out, he called on slugger Khris Davis to pinch-hit for Wendelken. Davis came through with a two-run double to make it 7-3.
"Khris Davis' hit was big, having to come off the bench and get a pinch-hit there," Melvin said. "There were so many contributions tonight. ... A lot of good things happened for us tonight by a lot of guys."
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From there, Melvin turned to four more relievers to lock up the victory. All four kept the Cardinals off the board. In total, the A's bullpen tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings, with seven strikeouts.
"Trying to cross my fingers," Melvin said of his tactical moves. "But yeah, it's fun to do the National League game every now and then."