OAKLAND, Calif. _ Khris Davis hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the 12th inning to give the Athletics a 2-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles Saturday night before 24,612 at the Coliseum.
The home run, Davis' ninth, came off reliever Pedro Araujo and touched off a celebration at the plate _ his third career walkoff home run. The win gives the A's a series win over the Orioles as they attempt a sweep Sunday.
The game began as a pitcher's duel between A's starter Trevor Cahill and Baltimore's Kevin Gausman, but neither was around at the finish. Cahill went six innings with a career-high 12 strikeouts. Gausman gave up just two hits in nine scoreless innings.
The winning pitcher was Chris Hatcher (3-0), who came in after relievers Yusmeiro Petit, Santiago Casilla and Daniel Coulombe held Baltimore scoreless.
Gausman was done after a career-best nine innings, giving up two hits while walking two and striking out six. The only hits off the 27-year-old right-hander were a single by Marcus Semien in the first inning and another by catcher Bruce Maxwell in the third.
The A's were retired in order in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, and Gausman was done after 113 pitches _ 66 of them strikes.
The strikeouts were nice, but also served to drive up the pitch count. By the time A's manager Bob Melvin pulled Cahill after six innings, he'd thrown 98 pitches (58 for strikes) to record his 12 strikeouts.
In place of Cahill, Melvin summoned Yusmeiro Petit, who the night before pitched 1/3 of an inning and gave up five singles and three runs as the Orioles, trailing 4-1, tied the game 4-4.
Cahill had his career high in strikeouts through five innings, when he got Trey Mancini for the third out for No. 11.
The right-hander struck out the side in the first, had two more in the second, one in the third and two in the fourth. All three outs in the fifth were recorded by strikeout, and Mancini's second whiff stranded Anthony Santander at second base after a one-out double to left.
Cahill had previously struck out 10 batters in a game three times, the last time on June 14, 2013 in San Diego against the Padres as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Petit (seventh and eighth) and Casilla (ninth and 10th) each had two scoreless innings of relief.
_The Orioles were so certain of a blown call on a potential double play ball hit by Matt Joyce that they came off the field and most were in the dugout while the review was underway in the third inning.
Oops.
The call was upheld and Joyce was safe at first. The Orioles went back on the field, and the next pitch was a ground ball and a force at second. Inning over.
_Semien, who fouled off four pitches before hitting a run-scoring single against Darren O'Day for an insurance run in Friday night's win over the Orioles, was credited by Melvin for grinding out a difficult at-bat in a strikeout era.
"I'm sure it's tough on a pitcher when a guy is continuing to spoil good pitches," Semien said before Saturday's game. "They're trying to make those good pitches, and they do, and they don't get a strikeout on it. It's probably frustrating to them. It's part of our job to do that."
Melvin identified Semien and Jed Lowrie as hitters who can work a pitcher.
"There's certain guys in our lineup that are going to put the ball in play, and we have other guys who are going to strike out," Melvin said. "I just think you're seeing more strikeout guys around the league in general."
The challenge provided by O'Day was substantial.
"You want to call him a righty-specialist, whatever that is," Semien said. "He's got funky stuff. I knew his best pitch is his fastball up, but he just continued to throw the slider. A couple of ugly swings, and you just want to put the bat on the ball and see what happens.
"You don't want a strikeout there _ you never want a strikeout _ you just want to continue to grind against a guy like that."
