Ryan McMahon hit a two-run home run in the 12th inning, and the Colorado Rockies held on to defeat the Oakland Athletics 4-3 on Wednesday night.
Elias Díaz had three hits, including a two-run homer, while Brendan Rogers and Hunter Goodman each contributed two hits, helping Colorado break a four-game losing streak.
Before their losing streak, the Rockies had won seven games in a row, their longest winning streak in nearly five years.
“After that winning streak, all the guys in here feel a bit differently,” McMahon said. “I think they know we’re in every game, and having some success to do it leads to better results.”
Jake Cave started the 12th inning on second base and advanced to third on Ezequiel Tovar’s groundout. McMahon then hit his ninth homer of the season on a 2-2 slider from Kyle Muller (0-1).
This capped a frustrating offensive night for Colorado, who had multiple chances to break the game open but left seven runners in scoring position before McMahon’s winning hit.
“Just finding a way to win,” said McMahon after homering in his third consecutive game. “If you find ways to win, you can lean on that memory. Like, ‘Hey, we’ve done this before.’ It always gives you hope, which is much better to have than no hope.”
The A’s scored an unearned run in the bottom of the 12th and had two runners on base before Matt Koch got Max Schuemann to fly out, earning his first save of the season.
Nick Mears (1-3) pitched to four batters and got the win. JJ Bleday hit a home run for the A’s, who have lost 11 of their last 13 games. The game had a crowd of 3,617, the fifth-lowest attendance at the Oakland Coliseum this season.
One day after coming back from three runs down to beat the Rockies 5-4, the A’s almost did it again when Zack Gelof hit a two-out RBI single in the ninth inning to push the game to extra innings.
The Rockies got the potential go-ahead run to third base in the 10th, then struck out three times in the 11th before finally scoring in the 12th.
Oakland reliever Lucas Erceg made an impressive defensive play in the top of the 10th to keep the game tied, barehanding a comebacker by Brenton Doyle and throwing to first for the final out of the inning.
Díaz fell just a triple short of hitting for the cycle. The Rockies’ catcher got Colorado going by hitting a hanging slider from A’s starter Mitch Spence in the first inning, marking his first home run since May 8.
Díaz also singled in the third and doubled in the fifth before striking out and grounding into a double play in his last two at-bats. It was his 16th multi-hit game of the season, tying Tovar for the team lead.
Rockies starter Austin Gomber had six strikeouts, giving up one run and five hits in eight innings. In four May starts, Gomber has allowed two runs over 26 2/3 innings, posting a 0.67 ERA.
“He was brilliant, changing speeds, ball-strike ratio off the charts,” Rockies manager Bud Black said. “Efficient eight innings. You don’t see that a lot in today’s game.”
