clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Dodgers, Athletics, and the 5-4 Score

The Dodgers and Athletics have played 30 games against each other in their history, including 10 World Series games.  The Dodgers are only 4-13 in Oakland, but they have won nine of 13 at Dodger Stadium.

There have been three 5-4 games in the all-time series, and each one resulted in a celebration at home plate at Dodger Stadium:

1) Last Night

The Dodgers take a 2-0 lead into the 8th, give up a couple of home runs to trail 4-2, rally to tie in the 8th, then win the game on a Matt Kemp single in the 10th.  The Dodgers improved to 12-1 in one-run games at home.

Kevin Baxter of the LA Times tells us:

"We're a good team," said Kemp, who kept the eighth-inning rally alive by breaking up a double play with a hard slide at second. "We're capable of doing some things and it's showing."

2) August 29, 1997

The game was tied at three going into the 10th inning, when rookie shortstop Miguel Tejada, who hit his first major league home run earlier in the game, singled in a run off of Antonio Osuna to give the A's a 4-3 lead.  The Dodgers staged a rally in the bottom of the inning, with plate appearances by Greg Gagne, Darren Lewis, Billy Ashley, and Eric Young.  Chris Baker of the LA Times reported what happened next:

With the Dodgers trailing, 4-3, Otis Nixon, who had only 13 hits in 66 at-bats since joining the Dodgers, drove in the winning runs with a two-run, one-out, bases-loaded single in the 10th inning off reliever T.J. Mathews.

Nixon, who also scored the Dodgers' first run, received a standing ovation after he belted Mathews' first pitch into left field with the outfield drawn in.

"I knew they were going to play me in," Nixon said after the Dodgers improved to 8-4 in interleague play. "I didn't go in looking for a breaking ball. I was going to make him throw the ball over the plate."

The win gave the Dodgers a 2 game lead over the Giants with 26 games to play, a lead the Dodgers would eventually relinquish.

3) October 15, 1988

This was Game 1 of the World Series.  You may have heard about this game recently.