OAKLAND, Calif. _ Mike Foltynewicz has a tough last name to pronounce. For the Oakland A's, he was even tougher to hit. Almost impossible.
The 25-year-old Atlanta Braves righthander was three outs away from a no-hitter in front of an announced crowd of 19,286 at the Oakland Coliseum on Friday night. Matt Olson ended Foltynewicz's night and historic bid with a home run to lead off the ninth, but the Braves held on for the 3-1 win to hand Oakland its third-straight loss.
The dominant eight innings by Foltynewicz (pronounced Fol-ten-eh-vich) included eight strikeouts as he was able to keep the A's hitters off balance throughout the night.
The closest the A's ever got to something even close to a rally against Foltynewicz came in the sixth when Franklin Barreto and Matt Joyce drew back-to-back walks with one out. The small glimmer of hope quickly ended with consecutive strikeouts of Olson and Jed Lowrie.
Sonny Gray did his best to keep up with his counterpart, tossing eight innings of two-hit ball in what was his best outing of the season. His only hiccup came in the third inning when a leadoff double by Johan Camargo led to an eventual RBI double off the left field wall by Dansby Swanson to give Atlanta a 1-0 lead.
The Braves added on two more insurance runs in the ninth that proved to be of great importance after Brandon Phillips and Matt Kemp each came up with RBI singles to extend the lead to 3-0.
After Olson's home run, Jim Johnson came on to replace Foltynewicz and immediately allowed a double to Lowrie to bring the tying run to the plate in Khris Davis, but the former Athletic proceeded to strike out the side and preserved the victory for the Braves.
After Friday's close call, the last no-hitter to take place at the Coliseum remains Dallas Braden's perfect game on May 9, 2010. The last time the A's were no-hit also came in Oakland on July 13, 1991 when Baltimore Orioles pitchers Bob Milacki, Mike Flanagan, Mark Williamson and Gregg Olson combined to do so. Nolan Ryan had the last individual no-hitter against the A's on June 11, 1990.
