OAKLAND, Calif. – The Oakland A’s used the long ball to beat the visiting Red Sox for a 6-5 win Wednesday, their second victory in 24 hours after an eight-game losing streak.
After using two homers to score three runs in Tuesday’s 3-0 win, the A’s got power from an unexpected part of their lineup, including second-year right fielder Cody Thomas, who hit the first home run of his career.
“It was a changeup, and he had made me look silly on it early in the count,” Thomas said. “With two strikes, I was really trying to put something in play. I don’t think I’ve ever hit a home run on purpose … he left one up and I thankfully I got the barrel to it.”
Three two-run home runs helped Oakland (27-71) win back-to-back games for just the sixth time this season, overcoming four errors that helped keep Boston (51-46) in the game. The A’s entered the day ranked 23rd out of 30 teams in home runs with 72.
“Every win streak is great, no matter if it’s a bad season or a good season,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “We’ve obviously had our challenging times, you know it’s no secret.”
JJ Bleday went into the series almost a month removed from sending a ball over the fence. He finished the series with home runs in back-to-back games, driving a ball deep into right field for a two-run bomb in the bottom of the first.
Bleday, who was 2 for 4, was part of an offense that had 10 hits, with Jordan Diaz and leadoff man and fellow Vanderbilt alum Tony Kemp joining him in the two-hit club.
“He made adjustments mechanically, and whenever you make any type of adjustment, you need to have success,” Kotsay said. “He’s has had success and we’re hopeful that continues.”
That swing equalized the game after 38-year-old Justin Turner made it 2-0 Red Sox with a home run into left in the top of the inning.
One inning later, Thomas skied a ball to right-center for the milestone home run, giving the A’s a 4-2 lead. Jace Peterson added his own two-run shot in the fourth inning, and the A’s held on from there.
Wednesday’s series finale featured a pair of second-year young arms with pedigree in Oakland’s lefthander Ken Waldichuk and Boston’s righthander Brayan Bello. Both had been ranked as top-100 prospects by MLB.com during their minor league careers.
Waldichuk, the 25-year-old rookie from nearby St. Mary’s College, has vacillated between being a starter and reliever, making 13 starts in 23 appearances. Though hitters have bedeviled him often, as evidenced by a 6.66 ERA, Bello was the one who really struggled on Wednesday.
In Bello’s first start against the A’s, the 24-year-old allowed three home runs, including the fourth-inning rocket into right by Peterson. Bello’s day ended with a loss after four innings, allowing six earned runs on five hits and three walks.
Meanwhile, Waldichuk settled down after Turner’s first-inning home run but still only lasted a little over four innings. He finished the day with five strikeouts, three walks, five hits allowed and three earned runs before being relieved by Lucas Erceg.
“I want to go deeper into games, you know maybe make it maybe six, seven, eight (innings) instead of four or five,” said Waldichuk, who described the first few innings as “pretty rough.”
Of course, there are many reasons why the A’s have lost a league-worst 71 games in 2023, and one of those is poor fielding. This lack of execution reared its ugly head as the game went on, where the Red Sox scored from three of the A’s four errors in front of 15,023 fans.
The A’s had not committed an error in the field in the previous five games.
Each error was on a throw to first, which included both poor pickoff attempts and throws from across the diamond on groundouts.
In the top of the fifth, Connor Wong was able to get into scoring position on a Waldichuck pickoff attempt, and leadoff hitter Rob Refsnyder drove in his 24th RBI a few moments later.
A wild Peterson throw in the top of the sixth allowed Adam Duvall to score on what should’ve been a routine ground ball to cut the lead to one.
“The game of baseball is challenging, and we’re held to a high level of expectation to perform because we’re big leaguers and they know that,” Kotsay said.
The A’s will need to clean up those errors and hope the recent power surge is a trend if they’re to continue their winning ways during the next series against their AL West rivals, the defending World Series champion Astros.
