OAKLAND, Calif. — The Toronto Blue Jays’ first game at the Oakland Coliseum, on June 3, 1977, ended in a 3-2, walk-off loss, when Pete Vukovich came on for Jesse Jefferson with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth and surrendered a Dick Allen sacrifice fly. Forty-seven years later, they closed their account at Major League Baseball’s last dive bar with a final at-bat victory Sunday, riding Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s three-run double in a wild 10th inning to a 6-4 win.
Justin Turner opened the frame with a walk and after a George Springer lineout, Daulton Varsho was hit by a pitch to load the bases for Kiner-Falefa, who opened the scoring with a two-run single in the second and then split the left-centre field gap.
Things got weird right after when Davis Schneider sent a foul popper toward the Blue Jays dugout, the last of its kind in the majors without fencing separating it from the field. As Tyler Soderstrom ranged over, Yusei Kikuchi, seated on the top step, scrambled onto the field and collided with the first baseman, dropping both to the ground.
As a crowd of 11,276 booed, the umpires conferred and ruled dugout interference, while a few Blue Jays exchanged words with a couple of Athletics. Calm was restored, they again loaded the bases but Austin Adams struck out Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to end the inning.
Genesis Cabrera, the seventh pitcher on a bullpen day, allowed a run-scoring groundout to JJ Bleday in the 10th before collecting his first save of the season.
Bowden Francis led off the day with four shutout innings and handed over a 2-0 lead, Nate Pearson allowed a solo shot to Brent Rooker in the sixth before Trevor Richards surrendered a go-ahead two-run single to Abraham Toro in the seventh, the Canadian infielder dunking a changeup six inches off the plate into centre for a 3-2 edge.
The Blue Jays, who made 16 straight outs against Mitch Spence after Kiner-Falefa’s two-run single, responded in the eighth when Varsho broke that run with a single off lefty Scott Alexander. He advanced to second on a Kiner-Falefa sacrifice bunt, stole third and then scored on a Schneider sacrifice fly that tied the game 3-3, setting up the wild finish.
It all made for a wild Blue Jays send-off to the Coliseum with Athletics headed for a three-year pit stop in Sacramento next season before moving to Las Vegas for 2028. Sin City won’t be an entirely new destination for the Blue Jays when the time comes, as they opened the 1996 season at Cashman Field against the A’s while renovations at the Coliseum were being completed, while from 2009 through 2012, their triple-A affiliate was, rather inconveniently, based there.
Over the years they lost more than they won in Oakland, finishing 107-118 all-time in regular-season games here, although it’s home to the 7-6, 11-inning win in Game 4 of the 1992 ALCS in which they rallied in the ninth off Dennis Eckersley, one of the most important victories in franchise history. More recently, the Athletics’ financial posture helped the Blue Jays export a pair of third basemen, Josh Donaldson first followed by Matt Chapman, to fuel two other competitive windows.
As for this current group, their history here is tied to a fateful series July 4-6, 2022, when they dropped two of three at the beginning of a troubled week that led to Charlie Montoyo’s firing as manager, with John Schneider named his replacement.
Two years later, the Blue Jays are trying to emerge from a different type of tumult, and a ninth win in their past 13 outings lifted them to 32-33. With a win Monday at Milwaukee, they can reach .500 for the first time since they were 15-15 after a 6-5 win April 29 over the Kansas City Royals. Jose Berrios starts against Colin Rea in the opener there.
They’ll need a deep outing from Berrios, although they emerged from a second bullpen game in the injured Alek Manoah’s rotation spot relatively well from a workload perspective.
After Chris Bassitt and Kevin Gausman left just one pitch for the relief crew in the first two games of the series, Francis got the nod to start and he allowed just three hits and a walk with three strikeouts in an efficient outing.
Zach Pop followed with a clean fifth before Pearson hung a slider to Rooker in the sixth, and then club’s plan to save Richards in the seventh backfired when he went walk, single, sacrifice and Toro base hit. Chad Green got out of that inning and handled the eighth before Yimi Garcia pitched the ninth.