Final score: A’s 18, Phillies 3
If Brent Rooker is trying to play his way out of Oakland, he’s certainly leaving it all on the table.
At least, he left it all on the table at Citizens Bank Park this weekend. Rooker hit two homers in Sunday’s series finale, totaling a ridiculous 902 feet — 450 on the feet, 452 on the second — to cap a weekend that will be remembered even if it doesn’t precede a trade to the team he just torched.
Rooker went 7-for-12 over the series with three homers (none shorter than 416 feet) and a double. If it was an audition for a club reportedly “keeping a close eye” on him, he aced it. The fit wouldn’t be obvious. After this season, he has three years left of control. He’d either play left field (which he doesn’t play well) or push Kyle Schwarber there and, well, he doesn’t play it well either.
No matter. If he’s going to make Citizens Bank Park look as small as only a select few have made it look before, they’d figure it out.
Yet still, to say Rooker led the A’s home run charge on Sunday would be false. That credit would go to Lawrence Butler, who hit three taters of his own. Seth Brown matched Rooker with two. Zack Gelof hit a grand slam. You get the point.
The Phillies still end the first half with the best record in baseball, at 62-34. Nonetheless, after sweeping the Dodgers, losing two of three to the MLB-fourth-worst-A’s isn’t a perfect way to end the first half. The All-Star Break will come at the right time for many, even if many won’t get much of an All-Star Break at all.
Notes
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