It's safe to say that everything is going right for the Oakland Athletics at this point. Even when things go horribly wrong, they still manage to go right. For example, during Friday night's series opener against the Baltimore Orioles, the A's took a two-run lead into the bottom of the eighth inning, gave up three runs and still ended up winning 14-9.
The A's took a big early lead, scoring four runs in the first inning on an RBI triple by Josh Reddick, an RBI single by Yoenis Cespedes and a two-run homer from Chris Carter. A Brandon Hicks homer in the second made it 5-0 Oakland.
Chris Davis hit a home run in the bottom of the second and J.J. Hardy added an RBI single to cut into the A's lead. The Orioles took their first lead of the game with a four-run inning of their own, in the bottom of the fifth with a Hardy RBI single and a three-run homer from Adam Jones.
The A's reclaimed an 8-6 lead in the top of the sixth with a three-run Seth Smith double. Unfortunately, the Oakland bullpen was unable to hold onto that lead and gave up another three runs in the bottom of the eighth, as RBI singles by Hardy, Jim Thome and Davis gave the O's a 9-8 lead.
The top of the ninth was Baltimore's turn to blow the led, as they coughed up a back-breaking six runs. The runs came on RBI singles from Derek Norris, Jemile Weeks and Coco Crisp and another big double from Smith. That would be the coup de grace by the A's, who held on to pick up yet another win.
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