OAKLAND — By the time Franklin Barreto returned to the dugout after his third-inning strikeout Tuesday, teammate Yonder Alonso was waiting there for him.
“Just had a little talk with him,” Alonso said, his smile suggesting the talk was a bit stern in nature.
The message: Get his bat around quicker on the fastball.
Apparently it sank in. In the bottom of the ninth, with the A’s having blown a lead in the top half, Barreto turned around a 97 mile-per-hour fastball from the White Sox’s Tommy Kahnle and watched his first career walk-off homer sail over the left field fence.