He did not stay there.

Ruiz added a stolen base to his earlier homer, and by getting to second, he was in position to score on Tyler Nevin’s RBI single instead of Nevin never coming up at all in that inning.

When a lucky bounce isn’t so lucky

Matz held the A’s scoring to a two-run homer through four innings and his teammates had claimed a lead for him going into the bottom of the fifth. Three consecutive base hits put all of that in jeopardy and, momentarily, gave the A’s the lead.

A bounce — or rather a lack of one — changed that.

Shea Langeliers' clear double to the left-center gap got caught between the base of the wall and the warning track. Wedged into that tight spot, the ball did not ricochet out to a Cardinals outfielder. Instead of Langeliers driving in two teammates to tie the game and immediately untie it, the hit was ruled a ground-rule double and Zack Gelof was called out of the dugout to get back at third base.

He did not stay there, either.

Matz got outs from the next two batters, but each of those balls in play brought home a runner to push the A’s from a 3-3 tie into a two-run lead. Gelof scored on a ground out, and Langeliers followed him with a run on a sacrifice fly. The ground-rule double gave Matz a brief reprieve, but — like the ball — he was wedged in and unable to get free.

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