The A’s won their Labor Day matchup with the St. Louis Cardinals on Monday afternoon, taking the first game of the series 11-3 and starting the road trip with a bang. A very good holiday for the Green & Gold.
We had a battle of past versus future on the mound today as former Athletic Sonny Gray took to the bump for the Cards while rookie Luis Morales got the call for the A’s. Both pitchers were matching each other quite literally pitch-for-pitch as both took 41 pitches to get through three scoreless
innings.
Gray would be the first to blink this afternoon. Now in the fourth, the A’s got things started with a single from Darell Hernaiz and he was soon followed by a two-run blast from outfielder JJ Bleday, his 11th of the season:
The A’s then went back-to-back as Zack Gelof followed Bleday with a blast of his own, his second of the year to make it an early 3-0 A’s lead:
St. Louis quickly got one of those runs back as the first pitch from Morales in the bottom half of the frame was deposited into left field by catcher Ivan Herrera. Morales followed that mistake by striking out two of the next three batters.
Looking to expand on their two-run lead, the A’s tagged Gray for a couple more in the sixth. Hernaiz started things (again) with a double and came around to score on an RBI single from Colby Thomas, who was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. That brought Bleday back up to the plate with no one on and for the second time today he took Gray deep, this time a solo blast making it a 5-1 game:
The A’s never let up the pressure on St. Louis this afternoon. After the Cardinals got one back in the bottom of the sixth the A’s brought in two more in the seventh on an RBI double from Brent Rooker and RBI single from Tyler Soderstrom to make it 7-1.
They didn’t stop there either. After getting shut down all weekend against the Rangers the A’s had some frustration to take out. They brought in three more runs in the top of the eighth, courtesy of an RBI groundout from Willie MacIver, an RBI single from Lawrence Butler, and back-to-back doubles from Jacob Wilson and Soderstrom:
That was more than enough for Morales. He ended up pitching into the sixth, putting on another great performance in what was his fifth career start.
- Luis Morales: 5 2/3 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 91 pitches
At this rate he’ll not only have a spot for next season locked down, but he could be a serious candidate to take the ball on Opening Day 2026. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Or should we?
A couple arms from the bullpen finished things off for the Athletics. Righty Justin Sterner finished the sixth for Morales and also handled the seventh, and the newest member of the bullpen Scott McGough made his A’s debut with two mop up innings, allowing one meaningless run in the bottom of the ninth but finishing the game up.
Now that’s how you start a road trip. A tough weekend with the bats didn’t follow them to St. Louis as the club racked up 15 hits and 11 runs. They hit three homers (with two from Bleday) and walked three times compared to just six punchouts. Morales continues to look like he belongs at the front of the rotation and is cementing his spot in the big leagues with each appearance. The club is now 64-75 with 23 games left to go. Unlikely to get back to .500 but getting close would be nice.
Things continue tomorrow evening. The A’s will welcome back veteran right-hander Luis Severino when he takes to the mound tomorrow afternoon. He didn’t require a rehab assignment and instead jumps right back into his spot in the rotation. He’ll bring a 4.82 ERA into tomorrow’s contest. The Cardinals will counter Severino with their own veteran right-hander in Miles Mikolas, who has limped to a 5.04 ERA across 26 starts this year. Think we got another high-scoring affair in order?
