OAKLAND, Calif. _ The Oakland A's sent their fans on an emotional roller coaster featuring happiness, anger and ecstasy all in the span of one inning Tuesday.
After booing Santiago Casilla off the mound in the eighth inning for blowing Chris Smith's shot at his first win since 2008 and first of his career, the crowd of 13,875 fans at the Coliseum was sent into a frenzy after the A's completed another one of their late-inning comebacks that have become very common at home this season in a 10-8 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
Matt Joyce was responsible for the madness. After the A's had already began the inning with four straight hits to cut the deficit to 8-6, Joyce came up with the bases loaded and delivered the knockout punch, smashing a double off the left field wall that cleared the bases to put the A's ahead 9-8.
It was a scene that was all too familiar for A's starting pitcher Smith.
The 36-year-old veteran handed the ball to manager Bob Melvin after recording the first out of the fifth, leaving a potential victory in the hands of the A's bullpen with just 11 outs to go. The A's were more than halfway there, but then Casilla blew it all up.
Casilla entered the game in eighth inning and ruined Smith's potential feel-good story by surrendering a two-run home run to Drew Butera, giving the Royals a 5-4 lead and crushing Smith's hopes of earning the win.
Smith's dream scenario quickly turned into a nightmare as the Royals opened the floodgates. Blake Treinen was summoned in relief of Casilla and surrendered a two-run home run to Eric Hosmer and a solo bomb to Mike Moustakas just two batters later to go from a 4-3 lead to an 8-4 deficit all in the same inning.
It was deja vu all over again for Smith, who was dealt a similar blow in July after pitching seven innings and exiting the game with the lead only to watch Casilla blow a save by surrendering a go-ahead home run in the ninth. Smith became the oldest player to make his first major league start earlier this season. He spent six years battling his way through the minors and independent leagues and even took a year off from baseball before finding his way back to the big leagues last year in the A's bullpen.
After a rough first inning that saw him allow three runs after just four batters faced, Smith settled down to give the A's 5 1/3 innings of work, allowing just the three runs and only one hit after the first.
Home runs have often been Smith's downfall this season, but this time the long ball helped the 36-year-old veteran. A's home runs in each of the first three innings provided Smith with just enough support to exit the game with the lead.
They certainly were the Swingin' A's early on in the game.
Joyce and Matt Olson led off the first and second with home runs, then Khris Davis smashed a two-run homer over the left field wall in the third to give the A's a 4-3 lead over the Kansas City Royals.
Davis' go-ahead blast was his 33rd of the season, tying him with Texas Rangers slugger Joey Gallo for third-most in the American League. Joyce, who hit his 17th of the season, is well on track to surpassing his career-high home run total of 19 set in 2011 as a member of the Tampa Bay Rays. It was the eighth time Joyce had led off a game with a home run and the fourth time this season.
For Olson, his eighth home run of the year continues what has been a hot streak since taking over the first base job. The rookie has now hit a home run in four of the past five games for the A's.
