On This Date: Davis’ Walk-Off Single Lifts A’s Over Yankees In Thriller
Jun 15, 2020, 6:00 AM
(Photo by MediaNews Group/Bay Area News via Getty Images)
Three years ago today, the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics had a back-and-forth affair that ended with a walk-off win for the A’s
All athletic events will be on pause for the foreseeable future, which is a tough pill to swallow for sports fans around the world.
While this may be a rough time for Oakland Athletics fans, we can look back on some good times while we wait for baseball to make its return.
June 15, 2017: A’s 8, Yankees 7
On this date three years ago, the Oakland Athletics and New York Yankees had a contest that went down to the wire, with the A’s rallying in extra-innings to defeat the Yankees by a final of 8-7 at the Coliseum.
The A’s got on the board early with a solo-home run from Jed Lowrie in the first and an two-RBI double from Adam Rosales in the second inning to give Oakland a 3-0 lead.
New York would battle back, tying the game up at 3-3 in the sixth inning after a two-RBI single from Chase Headley and an RBI single by former Athletics first baseman Chris Carter.
Yonder Alonso’s solo home run put the A’s back out in front in the seventh, although Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez would erase the deficit by tying things up at 4-4 with an RBI double. Both teams would trade runs until the A’s took a 6-5 lead into the ninth inning, where Sanchez delivered a game-tying single to send the game into extra-innings.
Athletics reliever Liam Hendricks surrendered a run in the 10th inning on a sacrifice fly by Yankees second baseman Starlin Castro to give New York its first lead of the night.
Oakland’s first two batters were retired in the 10th, leaving it up to Rajai Davis. Davis singled to center, followed by a clutch double by Chad Pinder to put the winning run in scoring position with two outs. New York intentionally walked Jed Lowrie, putting Khris Davis in a position to steal a win from the Yankees.
Davis lofted a 2-2 breaking ball just out of Castro’s reach in center-field, allowing both runs to score to give the A’s an 8-7 win at the Coliseum.
One of Oakland’s top prospects made his debut in this game, an infielder by the name of Matt Chapman. Chapman went 0-3 in the contest before picking up his first-career hit on June 17, 2017.