A’s offense takes over in 9-4 victory

Shea Langeliers nearly hits for the cycle while Brent Rooker and Brett Harris add home runs of their own

It’s crazy how fast baseball can humble you.

An exact week ago today, the A’s finished off the Pittsburgh Pirates to complete a three-game sweep and extend their winning streak to four. Heading into today, the A’s were looking to avoid losing their fourth straight after back-to-back disastrous losses to the Texas Rangers. Thankfully, the offense stepped up for a second day in a row.

While the first game of the series was a late comeback and yesterday was a good-old fashioned butt kicking, todays first game was about as back-and-forth as they come for the first half of play. From the fifth inning on, however, the A’s absolutely took over to snag the 9-4 much needed victory.

After the Rangers got on the board fast in the first thanks to a Jonah Heim sacrifice fly, Shea Langeliers one-upped it the second swatting a two-run home run to left field, his eighth of the season. Langeliers wasn’t even close to done. Beware.

Sears’ lead would last about ten minutes, however, as Marcus Semien tied the game up at two in the third with a solo-bomb to left. With another 3-5 performance today, Semien is now 7-15 at the dish with two home runs this series.

Then in the fourth, the Rangers went right back in front with a two-run Leody Taveras home run to left center to double up the A’s, 4-2. Sears last start against the Rangers saw him take a no-hitter into the seventh inning while allowing just one hit overall; today he allowed seven hits and two home runs.

The A’s got those two runs back in the bottom half thanks to three straight doubles from Brent Rooker, J.D. Davis and Langeliers. Those three also combined to go 7-11 at the dish today.

Sears best inning of the day came in the fifth when he retired the side in order while striking out Nathaniel Lowe and Adolis Garcia, and perhaps it created some momentum as Brett Harris put the A’s back ahead in the bottom of the fifth with his third career home run. The A’s now led 5-4 on the fourth and final lead change of the game at the time.

After allowing a two-out single in the top of the sixth, Mark Kotsay yanked Sears for Austin Adams in relief. It certainly wasn’t Sears best day allowing four earned runs, but he battled and gave the A’s 5.2 innings strong after an extensive bullpen effort yesterday and the impending doubleheader.

The A’s added a sixth run in the sixth inning after a lead-off Davis walk and Langeliers triple. A day after Semien almost hit for the cycle against his former club, Langeliers comes a single away from doing it right back to the Rangers. He also had a three-home run day against Texas earlier this season; they must be sick of him.

The Rangers had a chance to bite into their deficit in the seventh after a two-out Lowe double off Adams, but Garcia grounded out to end the threat. The A’s have done a remarkable job keeping the dangerous Garcia in-check with just one hit in ten at-bats so far this series. Adams logged another 1.1 scoreless to send his ERA to 1.42 on the season.

Little did the Rangers know that that would be their last opportunity to make the game interesting. Rooker, last weeks American League Player of the Week, put the nail in the coffin with a three-run behemoth blast to center in the seventh. The A’s now lead 9-4 and could smell the victory roses for the first time since Saturday.

Mason Miller took over an inning earlier than normal in the eighth but still did Miller-esque things working a 1-2-3 frame while striking out two of the Rangers better bats, Evan Carter and Josh Smith. In the ninth, Miller struck out another pair.

The A’s are back in the win column improving to 18-20 on the season. They can earn a series split with another win over the Rangers here later today.

Game two of the doubleheader will start within the hour as it’s a battle of two young righty arms: Jack Leiter for the Rangers making just his second career start and Osvaldo Bido for the A’s making his 2024 debut. @ConnorAshford will take over the writing reigns, so treat him well.