OAKLAND, Calif. — On Saturday morning, not even 12 hours after an athletic trainer nearly took him off the mound, Brooks Raley retreated to the visitor’s bullpen at RingCentral Coliseum. He awoke on Saturday feeling unencumbered. He came to the ballpark and stretched out. He threw 10 or 15 pitches off the bullpen mound.
“I was like ‘All right, it’s time to go on the gas pedal, I feel good,’” Raley said “ …I gave the green light. They asked me to go for the ninth and I didn’t have any hesitation and said absolutely.”
Raley’s back has barked since spring training, tightening up at inopportune times. Martín Maldonado noticed Raley laboring during Friday’s 8-5 win and surmised it flared again.
Pitching coach Brent Strom, manager Dusty Baker and head trainer Jeremiah Randall visited Raley in the middle of his outing at Maldonado’s request. After a long conversation among the group, Raley threw two warmup pitches and stayed in the game. Chad Pinder struck a pinch-hit, two-run home run against him, prompting Baker to remove him in favor of Joe Smith.
Before Saturday’s game, Baker did not commit to Raley’s availability either that afternoon or in the immediate future. He doubted whether he could give the team anything, concerning for a bullpen that threw 8 ⅓ innings in the first two games. Raley spoke before Baker on Saturday morning and reiterated that he was available.
“He guaranteed us that he was ready today,” Baker said. “We needed him.”
Baker summoned Raley for the game’s most perilous predicament. Enoli Paredes loaded the bases with two walks and a single during the eighth. Houston clung to a four-run lead. Raley needed to retire the go-ahead run — twice.
Raley prepared first to face Mitch Moreland. A’s manager Bob Melvin inserted Jed Lowrie as a pinch hitter instead. Lowrie is a switch hitter but, obviously, hit righthanded against Raley. Raley throws a menacing cutter that he can run in on righthanded hitters and induce rollover groundouts.
Lowrie saw three cutters to start. He fouled one and watched two others miss the strike zone. Behind in the count, Raley did not deviate from the plan. He left the 2-1 cutter on the outer half, but Lowrie took it to even the count. Raley came back on the inner-half with the 2-2 pitch. Lowrie swung straight through it.
“They pride themselves on coming back late in the game,” Baker said of the A’s. “That was a big strikeout of Lowrie. They were in grand slam reach.”
Only Pinder stood between Raley and removing himself from the biggest jam of Houston’s young season. Pinder has a .769 career OPS against lefthanded pitching. He smoked a mislocated cutter into the left-field seats for a two-run homer on Friday against Raley.
On Saturday, Raley altered his approach and attempted to get ahead with a breaking ball. He threw a first-pitch curveball. Pinder got under it, lifting a deep fly ball to center field with just enough air under it. Myles Straw settled and made the catch. Raley, often stoic, left the field with a fist raised.
“My wife would tell you I do get my share of fist pumps, especially in Asia,” said Raley, who pitched in the KBO for five years. “It was definitely a cool moment getting out of that situation and knowing what I did for the team.”
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April 04, 2021 at 08:33AM
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