Tommy La Stella, Yasmani Grandal, Mark Canha

Oakland’s Tommy La Stella slides in front of White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal to score in the fifth inning Thursday in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series. Oakland advanced with a 6-4 win. Eric Risberg/Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Oakland Athletics ended 14 years of postseason futility, riding Chad Pinder’s go-ahead, two-run single in the fifth inning and repeated costly walks by Chicago’s relievers to rally past the White Sox 6-4 on Thursday and win the decisive third game of their AL first-round series.

The AL West champions lost the opener, then won on consecutive days and advanced to a Division Series against the rival Houston Astros, starting Monday in Los Angeles. The winner of that matchup faces the New York Yankees or Tampa Bay for a spot in the World Series.

Sean Murphy hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning against Codi Heuer as wives and families cheered from suites high above the diamond.

Oakland stopped a nine-game losing streak in winner-take-all postseason games, a major-league record that dated to the 1973 World Series. The A’s had lost six straight playoff series since sweeping Minnesota in the 2006 Division Series, only to get swept by Detroit in the Championship Series.

And what a relief it was for a team that won 97 games each of the past two seasons, only to lose the AL West to Houston and then the AL wild-card game both years.

The low-budget A’s had not captured a winner-take-all postseason game since beating the New York Mets in Game 7 of the 1973 World Series. Oakland had gone 1-15 in potential clinchers since 2000.

Advertisement

PADRES 11, CARDINALS 9: Fernando Tatis Jr. and Wil Myers each hit two home runs and Manny Machado also connected for San Diego, which rallied to force a deciding Game 3 in the NL series.

San Diego’s powerful offense finally burst to life after slumbering through a 7-4 loss in Game 1 and a listless first five innings Thursday night.

Tatis and Myers are the second teammates in postseason history to hit multiple homers in the same game, joining Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series.

The Padres became the first team in postseason history to hit five home runs from the sixth inning onward in one game.

Tatis, a 21-year-old budding superstar and NL MVP contender along with Machado, had a breakout game after struggling for much of the final two weeks of the regular season and with runners on base in this series.

After striking out with the bases loaded in the fourth, Tatis homered in consecutive innings and drove in five runs.

Advertisement

Myers hit a go-ahead leadoff shot in the seventh off losing pitcher Daniel Ponce de Leon and a two-run homer in the eighth.

BRAVES 5, REDS 0: Ian Anderson dazzled in another shutout performance for Atlanta, and the Braves won a playoff series for the first time in almost two decades by sweeping light-hitting Cincinnati.

Ronald Acuña Jr. had three hits for the NL East champions, including a run-scoring double in the fifth. After winning Wednesday’s series opener 1-0 in 13 innings, Atlanta broke open Game 2 on two-run homers by Marcell Ozuna and Adam Duvall off Raisel Iglesias in the eighth.

Anderson struck out nine in six innings as the Braves snapped their record-tying string of losses in 10 consecutive postseason rounds since their last playoff series win in 2001. Atlanta will face Miami or the Chicago Cubs in the NL Division Series in Houston.

Anderson, 22, allowed two hits and walked two in his playoff debut after just six regular-season starts. Will Smith, Chris Martin and Mark Melancon each threw one perfect inning.

CUBS-MARLINS: Game 2 was postponed until Friday because of a forecast for rain.

Miami leads 1-0 after winning the opener, 5-1.

The Marlins are hoping center fielder Starling Marte can play through a broken bone in his left hand. Marte was hit by a fastball in the ninth inning Wednesday, and X-rays revealed a non-displaced fracture in his fifth metacarpal – the bone that leads into the pinkie finger.

Related Headlines

Comments are not available on this story.