Laureano the hero in A's 2nd straight walk-off

OAKLAND -- The A’s seem to have forgotten how to win a game that does not lead to the mobbing of a player in celebration immediately after.

It was Ramón Laureano's turn for a celebratory dousing on Saturday after his blooper off Cleveland reliever A.J. Cole dropped into shallow-right field for a walk-off single, completing a 3-2 win over the Indians. The A’s are 4-1 on their current six-game homestand, with the first win coming on a no-hitter by Mike Fiers, and the last three wins coming via walk-off.

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Laureano’s walk-off wiped away a rare bad outing at home for A’s closer Blake Treinen.

Looking to shut the door, Treinen surrendered a game-tying single to Leonys Martin with two outs in the ninth. The run snapped a streak of 32 consecutive scoreless innings at the Coliseum going back to 2018 for Treinen, the longest in Oakland history by a reliever.

“Blake has picked up this team so many times,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “That was the first run that’s been scored on him in forever. I know he had a record as far as [at] home. To pick him up, that’s what being teammates is all about.”

Laureano walked it off, but Stephen Piscotty played just as big a role in setting it up. After Matt Olson and Kendrys Morales reached base to lead off the bottom of the ninth, Piscotty dropped a perfect sacrifice bunt down the third-base line to move the runners over. It was Oakland’s first sacrifice bunt of the season.

“We bunt a lot,” Melvin joked. “Actually, he works on his bunts every day in a group. They try to be precise and hit a target. We don’t ask him to do that often, but when you get in a big situation and haven’t done it in quite a while, to be able to do it is quite impressive.”

It was a rare small-ball victory for the A’s after building their success last year on their ability to smash home runs with the best of them. Inching closer to .500 at 19-22, they’ll take wins however they come.

“It’s not our typical style, but it’s good to know we can do that. We’re scratching and clawing for these W’s,” Piscotty said. “It’s a good bounce-back from that [1-8] road trip. That’s what this team does. Whenever we get knocked down, we seem to come back stronger.”

After starting the year winless in their first 14 games in which they did not hit a home run, the A’s won on Saturday without having a ball leave the yard.

Although, if you count Little League home runs, you could include Nick Hundley's in the fifth, when his booming triple off the left-field wall allowed him to score after a poor throw from Jake Bauers.

“I thought when he hit that, it was gone,” Melvin said. “We hit some balls really good today that really didn’t go anywhere. There are games where you have to just be able to move runners over and get guys in.”

Return of the ‘opener’

The A’s decided to start a game with an opener for the first time in 2019, and if the results from the first trial are any indication, this likely was not the last time they will do so this year.

Going back to the strategy they implemented in the final month of 2018 and into their AL Wild Card Game against the Yankees, the combination of Liam Hendriks and Aaron Brooks managed to outduel Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer in the early going.

Hendriks had plenty of experience with the opener role in 2018, getting the start in eight games over the final month. He allowed a run just once in those eight outings, and did more of the same on Saturday with a scoreless first inning before handing it over to Brooks.

Aside from a solo home run surrendered to Martin in the fifth, Brooks allowed the strategy to go according to plan by allowing just one run over four innings. He began the sixth by facing Cleveland’s lineup a third time through the order, which was when the A’s anticipated Brooks might start to run into trouble, and he allowed the first two batters to reach base before getting pulled for Yusmeiro Petit.

“We were just trying to keep the regular starter out of the top of the order one less time,” Melvin said. “It worked out for us today.”