Jake Smolinski can’t fly, but as he showed Tuesday night in the Coliseum, he can put on a good impression.
He did it in the eighth inning Tuesday, racing into the right center field gap to chase down a rocket off the bat of pinch-hitter Lonnie Chisenhall.
It was, to say the least, jaw-dropping.
“That was a fun game out there tonight,” Smolinski said. “Everybody played a big part in this one. Those are fun games to play.”
There have been entirely too few of those for Oakland this year. But the A’s got terrific starting pitching from Sean Manaea, the bullpen turned the Indians away, and the offense scored nine times, just the sixth time Oakland has scored as many as nine runs in a game.