The A’s got back in the win column on Wednesday evening, bouncing back from a series-opening loss by beating the St. Louis Cardinals 6-2 in convincing fashion in front of the Sacramento crowd. And a certain outfielder had an… electric debut. Too much?
Ginn dominates again
Right-hander J.T. Ginn entered this contest coming off the best outing of his career, an eight inning, one-run performance against the Philadelphia Phillies. So how would he top that outing in tonight’s contest?
It wasn’t quite as dominant
but it was just as effective. Ginn bounced around a lot of trouble tonight, giving up hits in every inning. He got out of some tight squeezes and got some major help from his defense
Ginn couldn’t hold them back forever. The Cardinals’ efforts finally paid off for them in the top of the fourth. Back-to-back-to-back singles (plus a fielding error from Colby Thomas in right) brought in St. Louis’s first run and with no outs the game felt in the balance. Ginn needed a couple big plays to get out of this jam with no more damage done.
He buckled down and struck out the next batter on three pitches. Out one. Then his battery mate this evening, the newly acquired Jonah Heim who was making just his second start for the A’s, made an absolutely heads-up play by quick-throwing to third base to get a run down out:
Two down. The final out of the frame was a battle but same result for Ginn: another punchout, and escaping with minimal damage done. Ginn would go two more innings after that, allowing a single but stranding the runner in each frame. His night was done after six full frames.
- J.T. Ginn: 6 IP, 9 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 95 pitches
The 26-year-old continues to impress since joining the rotation. He now has 3.12 ERA on the season, but as a starter he’s now at a 2.97 mark. And that’s counting that horrible five-run outing he had recently. Ginn’s spot in the rotation seems as solid and cemented as it’s ever been. He’ll hope to continue his breakout next time out, which lines up to be Sunday in the homestand finale against the San Francisco Giants.
A’s bats wake up for big fourth
On the other side of things, the Athletics’ offense was facing a pitcher having an uneven year in left-hander Matthew Liberatore. The A’s bats were quiet for most of the first few innings. I say quiet because…
… Henry Bolte got his first big league hit! On the second pitch he saw in his first at-bat in the bigs. And the first hit of the game for the A’s as well. Give that man that ball! It’s sure to be the first of many for the young outfielder just beginning his career. In fact, he didn’t wait around long for his second base knock as he got #2 out of the way in his second plate appearance:
Other than that the A’s couldn’t muster much against Liberatore for the first four innings tonight. They did manage to get back-to-back singles to start the third and had runners on the corners with no outs, but some bad baserunning wiped that away. Michael Stefanic, who was only just recalled from Triple-A, was picked off of first base before Shea Langeliers lined out to the shortstop baseman, who threw to the third baseman who then tagged a wandering Darell Hernaiz out for the third of the inning. Frustrating isn’t a large enough word for that sequence of events.
Now down 1-0 entering the bottom of the fifth it was time to get to work. The A’s started with back-to-back one-out singles followed by a walk to Langeliers. That loaded the bases for the lefty-on-lefty matchup the Cardinals probably wanted, Liberatore vs. Nick Kurtz. The power hasn’t quite been there for the young first baseman yet this year but it showed itself in a big way tonight as Kurtz clobbered a slider that didn’t slide, sending it over the fence in center field for a grand slam to take the lead:
I think everyone in that stadium was holding their breath for a moment there. That was almost a web gem from the Cards’ center fielder but thank god it wasn’t. That was Kurtz’s sixth home run of the year, one that gave the A’s the lead and got Ginn off the hook for a loss and put him in line for a win. That also extended Kurtz’s on-base streak, and he’s slowly but steadily climbing the leader board:
Now with a lead the rest of the game felt like it was on cruise control. The A’s threatened again that same inning against Liberatore but couldn’t break through. No matter, that extra work might have been the difference in him leaving the game after the frame.
Late innings
With Ginn out of the game and in line for the win, Mark Kotsay turned to his bullpen, first going with Justin Sterner to start the seventh. He ran into some fast trouble and not looking to let the Cardinals find sudden life again Kotsay quickly turned to Hogan Harris to get out of the jam. He got out of the frame but not before St. Louis brought home their second run on a sacrifice fly to cut the lead to 4-2.
The A’s quickly got that run back in the bottom half. Nick Kurtz hit a leadoff double, moved to third on a single and came home to score on an RBI sac fly from, you guessed it, Bolte. That was his first career RBI right there! Then in the eighth, just for good measure, tonight’s third baseman Zack Gelof got in on the fun with a solo blast to right center, his fourth of the year:
Right-handers Luis Medina and Jack Perkins each provided an inning of work at the end with both having scoreless appearances and shutting the door on the Cardinals. Win #22 achieved.
A fantastic night at the ballpark if you were there. Obviously the big hit came from Kurtz with that back-breaking grand slam in the fifth, but the story of tonight has to be Henry Bolte in his big league debut. 2-for-2 with his first big league RBI sac fly. One of those hits he flashed his speed on an infield ground ball. He added in a well-worked two-out walk just to show off some of his strike zone recognition to boot. Oh, and that defense we’ve heard so much about?
This kid had one heck of a debut and we’re all wondering what he’ll do for us the rest of the season. The outfield has been a weakness all year but with Bolte the ceiling just got pushed way higher. Fair to expect him in the lineup tomorrow?
Other than the fantastic Bolte, Ginn was dominant yet again, the bullpen mostly did it’s job, and the errors the A’s made in the field didn’t end up costing them. The Mariners lost tonight so the A’s take a two-game lead over them in the AL West, though because the Rangers didn’t play tonight they’ve leapfrogged the M’s for second in the AL West. With as close as the top of the division has been all season this is something that could go on for the next five months.
The series wraps up tomorrow evening in the series finale. Left-hander Jacob Lopez draws the start for what’ll be his ninth assignment. Things have not gone well for Lopez as he’ll bring a bloated 6.11 ERA into tomorrow’s contest. On the bright side for him he’s coming off a good start last time out when he pitched 5 1/3 innings against the Orioles, allowing just two runs on three hits in Baltimore. That quality outing gave him his third win of the year but the leash can’t be all that long considering his struggles all year. Everyone will be hoping this is the beginning of him turning his season around but another bad start could push Mark Kotsay to reconsider his spot in the starting five.
He’ll be opposed by right-hander Michael McGreevy, who is off to an absolutely stellar start to his season. The third-year starter has a pristine 2.18 ERA through eight starts and has been a big reason why St. Louis is actually outperforming expectations this season. There’s some underlying stats that may concern how sustainable this is but the control-oriented pitcher won’t be an easy task for the A’s offense to take on. None of the Athletics have seen him before so it’ll be a brand new challenge for our A’s.
