The A’s started their two-city road trip with a victory over their AL Central rivals, beating the free-falling Minnesota Twins by a final of 6-3 that saw the A’s take the lead and never look back.
Taking the ball for the visiting squad tonight was left-hander Jacob Lopez. Though he’s still technically a rookie at this point he feels like a veteran on the mound who is extremely comfortable in the big leagues. Coming off a string of four quality outings, Lopez started this one shaky but with the help
of a huge strikeout avoided any damage. He wouldn’t be so lucky in the second. A leadoff error from Brett Harris put a runner on and a two-out double off the bat of Twins right fielder Matt Wallner brought him in. An unearned run, yes, but an early deficit nonetheless.
Not for long! The top of the third saw the A’s score their first runs of the game. Facing Twins ace right-hander Joe Ryan tonight, the A’s got a two-out walk from Nick Kurtz and that was followed by the red-hot Shea Langeliers’ 27th home run of the year to take the lead:
For those keeping track at home, “Bangeliers” now leads all of baseball in home runs since the All-Star Break with 15 long balls in 29 games. He’s a bit of ways away from Terry Steinbach’s A’s single-season homer record from a catcher (35 in 1996) but with the way he’s swinging the bat right now he could definitely make a run. The club has 35 games left and he needs eight to tie and nine to take the record. Think about if he didn’t miss a month with injury…
The A’s only had a one-run lead and needed to add on against an ace like Ryan. A couple hits and an error helped them load the bases in the fourth. First came a Harris RBI sac fly to redeem his earlier error, then second baseman Luis Urias came through with an RBI single before the rally was capped by an RBI double off of Kurtz’ bat. When all was said and done the A’s were now looking at a 5-1 lead against one of the best pitchers in the sport:
With the way Lopez has been throwing the ball it felt like that would be enough to take the win tonight. The Twins however did not go quietly into the good night. They got one of those runs back in the bottom half of the inning off a solo homer from Brooks Lee, depriving Lopez of the beloved shutdown inning, then another solo shot, this one off the bat of catcher Ryan Jeffers, brought the Twins closer.
Now in need of some more insurance, the A’s got to work. Shortstop Darell Hernaiz, who has looked much more comfortable with the big league squad this year than last, collected a leadoff double to start the sixth, then came around to score the team’s sixth run of the evening on a base knock from his fellow rookie Brett Harris:
Outside of the error, not a bad night for Harris. That gave some extra breathing room for his starting pitcher. The left-hander would go on to pitch the bottom half of the inning, firing off a final perfect frame to end his night.
- Jacob Lopez: 6 IP, 4 H, 3 R (2 ER), 1 BB, 8 K, 2 HR, 94 pitches
Not as dominant as his previous few outings but when you think about his night, he really only made a few mistakes among the 94 pitches he threw: the two-out double to Wallner, and the two home runs to Lee and Jeffers. We’ll take that. His next outing is currently lined up to be next Sunday in the road trip and series finale against the Seattle Mariners.
The A’s needed nine outs from their bullpen if they wanted their 57th victory tonight. First up was right-hander Justin Sterner. He delivered a perfect seventh with a strikeout, but his second inning of work saw him allow a pair of singles that brought the tying run to the plate. After a quick mound visit though he was able to escape by inducing a pop out to first from Royce Lewis. Crisis averted.
With three outs to go, manager Mark Kotsay turned to lefty Hogan Harris to close this game out. Three outs and one perfect inning later and this contest was over. Harris had closed the door on the Twins for his first career save, and the A’s had taken game one of the series and the first game of the road trip.
A solid win for the Green & Gold. Lopez was very good on the mound yet again tonight and dropped his season ERA a couple percentage points. Langeliers continues to be one of the hottest hitters on the planet right now and his home run was key to tonight’s win. Add in a few insurance runs from the lower half of the lineup, a scoreless night from the bullpen, and it all adds up to the Athletics’ 57th win of the season.
As for tomorrow’s contest, the A’s will send rookie righty JT Ginn to the bump for his 10th start of the season and sixth since rejoining the starting five. He’s run into some trouble of late, allowing 12 earned runs over his past three starts spanning just 11 2/3 innings. Overall on the year he has a 5.04 ERA and he’ll look to turn things around against a Twins team that has never seen him in game action up close before. Minnesota plans to counter Ginn with their own righty in Bailey Ober. Now in his fifth season, the 30-year-old is struggling through his toughest season as he’s sporting a 5.15 ERA across 20 starts, a full run higher than his career earned run average. While the Athletics haven’t seen him yet this year Ober held them down in two wins last year so time for some payback.
