WASHINGTON -- The Oakland A’s were six outs away from their second win in three games when they took a 2-1 lead into the eighth inning against the Nationals on Saturday night. A disastrous eighth inning left the game tied before Keibert Ruiz homered on the first pitch from Lucas Erceg in the bottom of the ninth to solidify a 3-2 defeat for the A’s at Nationals Park.

Here are three takeaways from a game the A’s let get away late.

Butler gets first Major League hit
After making his Major League debut and going 0-for-4 on Friday night, 23-year-old Lawrence Butler notched his first hit, a double off the wall in left-center in the seventh inning against Washington starter Jake Irvin.

“Pretty good pitcher, just trying to get something elevated,” Butler said. “Trying to get a fastball up. Got one and did what I was supposed to do.”

After an 0-for-6 start to his career, Butler, Oakland’s No. 5 prospect according to MLB Pipeline, was on base.

“It felt amazing,” he said. “That’s the feeling you dream of as a little kid. Get that one out of the way and now we can just relax and go.”

Butler’s hit put runners on second and third with no outs, but Irvin retired Shea Langeliers on a groundout with the infield in and struck out Nick Allen. Reliever Jose A. Ferrer then entered the game and got pinch hitter Esteury Ruiz to pop out, and the A’s could not add to their 2-1 lead.

“We can’t add on to leads and it ended up getting us again tonight,” A's manager Mark Kotsay said. “We had second and third, nobody out. We hit a rollover to the shortstop with a 2-0 count, we strike out and just don’t get to add on, and really, that puts pressure on the backside of the bullpen and with a one-run lead the mistakes show up, and that’s how you lose baseball games."

The A’s got solo homers from JJ Bleday in the third and Brent Rooker in the sixth.

Austin Pruitt extends scoreless streak to 10 straight appearances
Oakland starter Luis Medina struggled for the second straight start. That he only allowed one run over four innings was a testament to his ability to strand seven Washington baserunners.

Reliever Francisco Pérez, called up earlier in the day from Triple-A Las Vegas, entered in the fifth against his former team. He retired the first four batters he faced before allowing back-to-back singles to Jake Alu and Blake Rutherford in the sixth.

Kotsay called on Pruitt. The right-hander walked Alex Call to load the bases and then faced CJ Abrams. With a 1-2 count, Abrams fouled off five straight pitches before Pruitt struck him out with a changeup down and away. Pruitt then got Joey Meneses to fly out to end the inning.

“Pruitt has got a ton of experience,” Kotsay said of the 33-year-old reliever. “He’s a guy we’ve got a lot of confidence in in those situations, coming in, and he did a great job.” 

Pruitt has not allowed a run over his last 10 games (12 innings, four hits, four walks, nine strikeouts). Opposing hitters are 9-for-45 (.200) against him with runners in scoring position.

Felipe’s difficulties contribute to eventful eighth inning
With no margin for error, Kotsay turned to right-hander Angel Felipe to protect a one-run lead in the eighth against the lower half of the Washington lineup. 

Felipe walked leadoff hitter Stone Garrett and things began to spiral. Alu bunted, and with Felipe’s follow-through taking him toward first base, by the time Allen fielded the ball to the third-base side of the mound, he had no play and it became a hit, putting runners on first and second.

Both runners moved up on a wild pitch and, after Rutherford walked to load the bases, pinch hitter Lane Thomas blooped a single to right, scoring Garrett. Felipe recovered, getting Abrams to ground into a 1-2-3 double play before striking out Meneses.

“Tonight we beat ourselves there in the eighth inning,” Kotsay said. “All the things that add up to a little bit of inexperience, a little bit of not being in the moment, and going through this with a young roster right now.”