Sean Manaea struck out eight and the Athletics got timely hits from Matt Chapman and Sean Murphy in Friday’s win over Shohei Ohtani and the Los Angeles Angels.
Well, this is awkward.
Personally, I love a good troll job on Twitter, and the Athletics came through with this tweet directed at the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday:
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In the top of the second inning on Saturday, as the A’s hosted the Los Angeles Angels, Kean Wong laid down a bunt to pitcher Frankie Montas who made the easy play for the third out.
Sounds simple enough, but here’s why the A’s called out the Pirates.
When Pittsburgh was playing the Cubs on Thursday, Chicago shortstop Javier Baez pulled a base running magic trick and in turn, made the Pirates' defense look foolish.
Catcher Willson Contreras was on second base with two outs when Baez hit a routine groundball to Pirates third baseman Erik Gonzalez. He threw it across the diamond to Will Craig, who pulled himself off first base to catch the ball. With Baez in front of him, all Craig had to do was tag him or turn around and go touch first base. Baez began running toward home to avoid the tag (once again -- there were two outs) and Craig fell for whatever Baez’s plan was.
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While Baez avoided the tag, Contreras raced home and scored before Craig to flip the ball to the catcher. Baez then ran back to first base and when the throw sailed down the right field line, he advanced to second base.
That’s why the A’s trolled. Essentially showing the Pirates how to make a routine play at first base with two outs.
The Pirates got their revenge, of course with a tweet of their own.
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It appears the Pirates were taking a jab at the A's possibly relocating after MLB urged the team to scout other cities while they wait for the Oakland city council to vote on the funding for the team's proposed waterfront Howard Terminal project.
It got a little awkward, but the execution was quite brilliant.
