Jerar Encarnacion and Michael Conforto hit back-to-back home runs in a three-run 10th inning Sunday afternoon, allowing the San Francisco Giants to capture the finale of the last Bay Bridge Series, 4-2 over the host Oakland Athletics.
The uprising gave the Giants a 2-2 split this season and allowed them to gain ownership of The Bridge trophy, presented to the winner of the year’s last meeting in the case of a tie.
The A’s, who will play next season in Sacramento, will leave the series with the distinction of having won more games (76-72) in the 28-year-old rivalry.
The explosive top of the 10th, which came with Dany Jimenez (1-3) on the mound, occurred at the end of a rare pitchers’ duel between the Giants’ Blake Snell and A’s JP Sears in which both starting pitchers threw upward of 100 pitches.
Encarnacion hit Jimenez’s first pitch for a two-run homer that also plated automatic runner Matt Chapman. Serving as a pinch hitter, Conforto smacked his solo shot four pitches later. The homers were the second of the season for Encarnacion and the 13th for Conforto.
Ryan Walker (8-3), who allowed a run in the last of the 10th on an error, escaped a bases-loaded jam with three straight strikeouts to close the book on the series.
The first two runs of the game came after Snell and Sears had traded zeros into the last of the sixth.
Oakland scored first when singles by Daz Cameron and Brent Rooker set up a two-out RBI single by Miguel Andjuar.
JJ Bleday was thrown out trying to reach third on Andujar’s hit, ending the inning. Three pitches later, the game was tied again when Heliot Ramos bombed a 446-foot home run to center field, his 18th of the season, leading off the eighth.
Snell went seven innings, allowing one run and six hits. He walked two and struck out 10 in his 109-pitch effort.
Sears pitched 7 2/3 innings and threw 105 pitches. He was charged with one run on seven hits and struck out nine without walking a batter.
Encarnacion and Tyler Fitzgerald had two hits apiece for the Giants, who won for just the second time in their last seven games.
Rooker and Andujar each singled twice for the A’s, who went without an extra-base hit among their eight hits.
–Field Level Media
