The Giants’ bullpen completely collapsed in the top of the ninth inning Friday, and the A’s took advantage by scoring five runs in the inning. Stephen Piscotty capped it off by hitting a grand slam off Trevor Gott.
Stephen Piscotty's flair for the dramatic has been on full display early in the 2020 MLB season.
The A's outfielder hit his second grand slam of the season Friday night at Oracle Park, and both have been as clutch as it comes. Just 10 days earlier, Piscotty crushed a walk-off grand slam to dead center to defeat the Texas Rangers. Friday night, after slugger Matt Olson brought the A's within four with a solo home run in the top of the ninth inning, Piscotty again cleared the bases with a ball that just was able to sneak over the left-field wall against the Giants, tying the game at seven.
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Giants reliever Trevor Gott was the man responsible for getting Piscotty out in that at-bat, but one too many hanging sliders doomed the 27-year-old pitcher. Piscotty explained what he saw in the box after another night of late-game heroics.
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“I kind of had a weird take on the first pitch. [Gott] had me fooled, and I think he might have seen that,” Piscotty said (h/t MLB.com's Martin Gallegos). “There’s always a chance a pitcher will throw that again when they see a hitter take a pitch like that. He’s a two-pitch guy, so I had a feeling it was going to be one or the other. I was able to get one elevated.”
Elevate it he did, giving the A's the upper hand on the first night of the annual Battle of the Bay series with an 8-7 win over the Giants. Piscotty now has three home runs on the season, but two of them have been ninth-inning grand slams.
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Due to a late scratch of Friday's initial starter for the A's, right-hander Frankie Montas, Jesús Luzardo took the mound a night early on Friday, and Sunday's starter Sean Manaea will go Saturday afternoon instead.
