MLB Rankings: Baseball’s Greatest Hits of Week-16
By Bill Felber
MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits in Week-16
5. Liam Hendriks, 55 percent
Oakland’s 5-4 victory over Minnesota Saturday required not one but two game-turning plays…and they came mere moments apart.
Liam Hendricks, the A’s reliever, provided the second. It came in the bottom of the ninth inning with Oakland trying to cling to a 5-4 lead at Target Field in Minneapolis.
How the A’s got to that 5-4 advantage will be dealt with momentarily. Hendriks is basically the alternate closer to Blake Treinen, but Treinen was unavailable for the ninth, having pitched in relief of Ryan Buchter to hold Minnesota in check in the eighth.
Hendriks’ season to date has been a calming one for the A’s. In 46 appearances covering 55 innings, he’s permitted just seven earned runs and 37 hits.
Saturday, however, did not fit his season-long pattern. After striking out Ehrie Adrianza, he allowed a base hit to Max Kepler and a double to Jonathan Schoop. Twins manager Rocco Baldelli called on Eddie Rosario as a pinch hitter, and Hendriks gave him an intentional walk to load the bases and set up a potential game-ending double play.
In these situations, the math gets interesting. The A’s still held a one-run lead, of course, yet by 55 percent the odds favored a Twins rally for a victory.
The next hitter, Mitch Garver, came up anxious…a good thing for Hendriks and Oakland. He cut at the first pitch and slapped a one-hop double play ball right at A’s shortstop Marcus Semien. When Semien turned it, Hendriks and the A’s had beaten the odds and held on to their win.