San Diego Padres' Carlos Quentin (18) hits a two-run home run off Oakland Athletics pitcher Tyson Ross during the sixth inning of a baseball game in Oakland, Calif., Saturday, June 16, 2012. At left is Athletics catcher Kurt Suzuki. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
After letting a three-run lead slip away, the A's staged a comeback of their own Saturday and beat the San Diego Padres 6-4 for their fifth straight victory.
Oakland trailed 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh when Cliff Pennington scored on a wild pitch from Padres reliever Luke Gregerson, who replaced Joe Thatcher with a 1-0 count on A's pinch hitter Jonny Gomes.
Gomes then drilled a two-run go-ahead homer to left-center, snapping an 0 for 34 pinch-hitting drought for Gomes that stretched back to August 2010.
That Gomes even entered the game was a bit of an eyebrow-raiser. He came in hitting .174 (8 for 46) over his last 20 games, but A's manager Bob Melvin pinch-hit him for hot-hitting Seth Smith in order to get a right-handed hitter against the lefty Thatcher.
Padres manager Bud Black then went to Gregerson after one pitch and the plan backfired on him quickly.
The victory didn't seem in the cards after Sean Doolittle gave up Will Venable's two-run double that gave San Diego a 4-3 lead in the top of the seventh.
That spoiled the victory for Tyson Ross, who allowed two runs and just one hit over six innings. The only hit he allowed was Carlos Quentin's two-run homer in the sixth. Ross walked four and hit a batter but struck out six.
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