A’s Win Again, Beat Baltimore 5-1

First series win since the start of May

The Athletics managed to put together a solid weekend. After splitting the first two game of the weekend series against Baltimore in West Sacramento, the A’s took the rubber match on Sunday afternoon with a quality, all-around team win to take the series and end the homestand on a winning note.

Facing the best Baltimore had to offer today, the Athletics were facing the unknown in Tomoyuki Sugano. Having not seen him in person before today that advantage usually goes to the pitcher since none of the batters have seen his repertoire in person yet.

Didn’t matter for the A’s. Lawrence Butler got things started with a leadoff single on fourth pitch he saw from Sugano, advanced to second on a productive out from Jacob Wilson, and came around to score on a two-out RBI base hit off the bat of Tyler Soderstrom to give the Green & Gold the early lead:

Taking the ball for the home team this afternoon, rookie left-hander Jacob Lopez was looking to bounce back after a couple rough starts put his rotation spot in jeopardy. He came into this game determined to earn another start. After a scoreless first and given the early lead Baltimore scored their lone run of the day in the second to tie this game up. Today’s catcher Jhonny Pereda attempted to nab the runner at third base but once the ball got away from his teammate the runner simply jogged in to score. They did get lucky in that the second runner got greedy and got thrown out at third base, but the damage was done. An unearned run, but a run nonetheless.

The Athletics didn’t wait around to strike back. Pereda made up for his defensive miscue by swatting an RBI double to get that run back and retake the lead for the A’s:

After Pereda came in to score the A’s got another run off of Baltimore’s own fielding adventures on the infield to make this a 3-1 game. Wilson didn’t think that was enough, adding on some insurance off Sugano with yet another RBI single:

Wilson would finish the day 2-for-4 and now leads all of baseball in hits with 93 base knocks. Rookie of the Year seems like a shoe-in. Can Wilson also be the starter at shortstop for the American League come All-Star time?

The game got really quiet from there as both sides settled in. Sugano would allow just two more hits during his afternoon, making way for the Baltimore ‘pen in the middle of the fifth. Lopez on the other side of the matchup pitched two more full frames himself, finishing the day after four innings of one-run bal;.

• Jacob Lopez: 4 IP, 4 H, 1 R (1 ER), 2 BB, 5 K, 91 pitches

Well not economical but it’s still a vast improvement over his previous two outings. With the way the pitching situation looks right now that’ll likely be enough to earn him another start.

Lefty Sean Newcomb entered out of the bullpen to start the fifth inning and he fired off three innings, not allowing Baltimore to even think about a comeback. That bridged the gap to the setup arms and close, but first how about an insurance run thanks to the power of Max Muncy?

That’s his second long ball since being recalled from Triple-A and he’s now got hits in three of his four games since returning, going 4-for-17 in four games played. He’s looking a lot more comfortable at the plate in his second stint with the team and with the record looking the way it is the club could give Muncy lots of playing time moving forward.

Relievers Grant Holman and TJ McFarland combined for a scoreless eighth before making way for flamethrowing closer Mason Miller. He did his job in perfect fashion, slamming the door without allowing an Oriole base runner and sealing the team’s 26th win of the season.

That’s a quality all-around win right there. The duo of Lopez and Newcomb worked beautifully together as they combined to hold Baltimore’s offense down for most of the game. The offense took advantage of Sugano’s off day on the mound, and the bullpen did it’s job without causing heartache or stress. The club has won their first home series since the end of April and now sit at 26-41 as they prepare to hit the road and head to southern California.

There they will take on their division rivals, the Los Angeles Angels. They’re comfortably in fourth place in the AL West above the Athletics and even a sweep wouldn’t even them up. It’d go a long way towards catching up though. Los Angeles will turn to left-handed veteran Yusei Kikuchi to start off the series for the Angels. The A’s have yet to announce their starting pitcher for tomorrow evening but signs point towards another opener, with left-hander Jeffrey Springs acting as the bulk pitcher.