No HRs, no prob. Manaea, A's beat Ohtani

There are certain boxes that most contending teams can consistently check on a given night. Strong pitching. Stingy defense. Situational hitting.

The A’s checked all those boxes in their 3-1 win over Shohei Ohtani and the Angels on Friday at the Coliseum. Their pitching was strong. Their defense was stingy. And their hitting was situational.

On the hill, Sean Manaea turned out another quality outing, allowing one run across 6 2/3 innings with eight strikeouts. Yusmeiro Petit and Lou Trivino ended what Manaea started, firing 2 1/3 combined innings of scoreless relief to finish the job.

Petit, despite being a reliever, notched his seventh win of the season, which ties him for the American League lead with Cleveland's Aaron Civale, a starter. Manager Bob Melvin joked that he put Petit in the game with the intention of getting him another victory. While the value of the pitcher win has eroded in recent years, Petit’s win total is telling of his ability to consistently give the A’s quality outings late in games.

“He’s definitely somebody that doesn’t get enough credit,” third baseman Matt Chapman said. “As long as he’s been here, he’s been amazing for us. We would not have been able to make the playoffs any one of those last three years if it wasn’t for him.”

Manaea was certainly aided by the defense behind him on Friday. In the fifth inning, shortstop Elvis Andrus turned a textbook 6-3 double play, fielding a grounder, sprinting to second base and firing to first base to get Manaea out of a jam. Occupying right field, Seth Brown flashed the leather as well, making a nice diving catch in foul territory.

Then, there was the timely hitting. In the bottom of the seventh, the A’s chased Ohtani from the ballgame en route to scoring two go-ahead runs. Mix all those elements together and it was, top to bottom, a fundamentally sound evening.

Interestingly enough, the A’s, who entered Friday with the third-most home runs in baseball, didn't go yard in either of their first two wins in this series. Even without the power that the team is typically known for, the hitters have found ways to plate runs with quality at-bats.

“We talk often about winning games without home runs and how important that’ll be for us,” Melvin said. “We do hit a lot of home runs and that’s kind of who we are, but when you can win games like that, typically it happens against really good starting pitching like we saw tonight. To be able to scrap some runs and do it without a home run is big for us.”

There was certainly a bit of a playoff atmosphere as well, as things got chippy in the bottom of the third inning when Ohtani unintentionally came up-and-in to Mark Canha with a 93.3 mph fastball.

Canha took exception, appearing to yell, “Come on, Sho!” Angels catcher Kurt Suzuki took exception to Canha's outburst, the two confronting each other around home plate. Suzuki and Canha exchanged words. The benches briefly cleared, both bullpens making the awkward half-jog toward the infield.

As order was momentarily lost between both sides, Ohtani looked on amused, smiling at the kerfuffle. At one point, the right-hander tapped his chest twice, as if to say, “My bad.”

The dramatic sequence was capped with a double play when Canha struck out and Elvis Andrus was retired at second base on a stolen-base attempt.

In their next meeting in the sixth inning, Ohtani inadvertently plunked Canha with a fastball, stumbling on his delivery and falling to one knee. Canha paid no mind this time, jogging to first without addressing Ohtani.

“Sometimes, certain things upset you,” Melvin said of the initial encounter. “It looked like the ball was going right for his face. He just reacted. That’s the way it is. It’s an emotional game. Didn’t react at all the time he got hit. He’s used to getting hit. It’s not the first time, it won’t be the last.”

Considering Canha’s penchant for getting drilled -- he's been plunked an MLB-high 11 times this year -- Melvin is accurate that it won’t be the last time he’s hit. And for the A’s as a whole, Friday night likely won’t be the last time they put together a complete, all-around win.