Brown lives 'every kid's dream' with walk-off

OAKLAND -- Seth Brown was no different than any kid who played baseball growing up. He often visualized a scenario that involved him playing in the Major Leagues and ending a game in dramatic fashion with a game-winning hit.

On Friday night, that scene finally played out in real life.

Coming to the plate with the game tied and two outs in the ninth, Brown turned on a 1-1 pitch from Rays left-hander Jeffrey Springs and drove it over the wall in right-center at the Coliseum. After grinding out the first five years of his professional career -- 573 games -- in the Minor Leagues and appearing in 33 games for the A’s over the past two years, the 28-year-old rookie finally delivered his first career walk-off hit in a 2-1 win over Tampa Bay.

“Brownie has been such a hard worker who played a lot of Minor League games and had a lot of success,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Finally gets a big league job a couple of years ago and then has to go back to the grind. There are certain guys you have more feelings for with the work they’ve put in.

“That’s every kid’s dream. In your backyard as a kid, fantasizing about hitting that walk-off home run. My guess is, he was in a pretty good mood last night.”

On a day that began with him sitting on the bench as the A’s faced Rich Hill (the sixth consecutive game vs. the A's started by a left-hander, matching the longest such streak in Oakland history), the left-handed-hitting Brown ended up producing his team’s only two runs.

He entered as a pinch-hitter for Stephen Piscotty in the seventh and broke a scoreless tie by roping an RBI single off right-hander Andrew Kittredge.

Against Springs in the ninth, Brown had a feeling he’d see a heavy dose of sliders. After all, Springs entered the day throwing his slider more than either of his other two pitches, at 38.1 percent of the time. Sure enough, Springs started him off with two sliders -- both low in the zone -- the first one a strike on a foul tip and the second a ball.

Brown said he was looking for any pitch to be left up in the zone. Though he was sitting on the fastball, he also kept the slider in the back of his mind given its high usage. The third pitch from Springs was another slider right where Brown wanted it just over the heart of the plate, and he blasted it 106.3 mph off the bat to send it 392 feet, as projected by Statcast.

“At that point, I’m just looking to help the team and put the ball in play hard somewhere,” Brown said. “Having that happen is something I’ve played out in my mind ever since I was a little kid. It’s every kid’s dream to do something like that. It was an incredible moment.”

Brown is certainly seizing his opportunities so far this season, showing a consistent ability to perform in the clutch. Of his nine RBIs on the year, five have given the A’s the lead in a game.