The A’s pulled off a wild comeback against the Rays, capped by a three-run walk-off homer from Matt Chapman. Down in the bottom of the ninth, Tampa tried to close it out with Diego Castillo on the mound. He immediately got into trouble by walking the leadoff man and then misfiring a pitch that advanced the runner. After a groundout for the first out, another walk put runners on again. Castillo finally found the zone with three straight strikes, picking up a K, but things went downhill from there.
Marcus Semien came up and crushed a fastball back up the middle. Evan Longoria fielded it slow and then threw wildly, allowing a run to score and putting the tying run on. Then Matt Chapman came up with two on. Castillo couldn’t find the zone with his fastball, went back to off-speed, and Chapman sat on it. He crushed it for a three-run walk-off homer, his second of the year. The bat flip was big, the helmet toss even bigger. The celebration was on, complete with a Gatorade shower and a botched high-five attempt.
A fan in the stands had a rough moment too. The ball landed near him, he had his glove in the right spot but didn’t open it, and it bounced into someone else’s hand. Brutal timing for number 54. Meanwhile, Chapman got soaked by Matt Olson during the celebration, ending one of the better ninth-inning swings in recent memory.