![\"\"](\"http:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/oakland_athletics.png\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
By Tim Byrnes<\/p>\n
It was a rough way to lose a series! The A\u2019s continued the habit of losing the series opener, powered through to a solid win in Wednesday\u2019s game, and lost a heartbreaker in the finale. The series came down to one pitch.<\/p>\n
(Cardinals: 6-4)
\nLosing the ninth opener in 13 series is frustrating for this team. Athletics starter Jeffrey Springs started off the game with a 4-pitch walk, and eight Cardinals later it was a 4-0 deficit.<\/p>\n
Jordan Walker\u2019s RBI-single began the scoring when after the walk, St. Louis had back-to-back singles. Three batters later, Jose Fermin hit a 2-run double, and Springs (3-3, 4.22) had to adjust his approach.<\/p>\n
St. Louis hitters were teeing off the changeup, Springs made adjustments, and while there was foot traffic his entire outing, he allowed no other runs.<\/p>\n
The A\u2019s responded with three runs of their own in the 2nd-inning, when they had four consecutive hits. With two outs Darryl Hernaiz and Jeff McNeil had singles, and Nick Kurtz had an RBI-single to get the team on the board. Langeliers followed with a 2-run double to get within 4-3.<\/p>\n
After a Nolan Goman single in the sixth inning, JJ Whetherholt hit a 2-run home run to extend the lead to 6-3. Langeliers finished the scoring with a monster 448-foot, 108.1mph moonshot to open the 8th, and the final score was 6-4.<\/p>\n
(Athletics: 6-2)
\nThe A\u2019s rebounded nicely Wednesday, by displaying the power fans have come to expect. The Athletics banged out 13 hits, including a grand slam by Kurtz, and won the middle game 6-2.<\/p>\n
The Cardinals got on the board first with back-to-back-to-back singles to open the 4th-inning, culminating in a Nathan Church RBI and a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
In the fifth, the A\u2019s responded when Hernaiz and recently promoted Michael Stefanic had back-to-back singles for the second time in the game, and Langeliers drew a walk.<\/p>\n
Kurtz then crushed a 2-2 count to deep-center field and gave A\u2019s starter JT Ginn a 4-1 lead.<\/p>\n
Ginn (2-1, 3.12) went six innings, but was busy all game, giving up nine hits and a walk. He only allowed one earned run though, and he is proving to the doubters that moving him into the rotation was a smart decision.<\/p>\n
The teams traded runs in the seventh and it started when Whetherholt scored on an Alec Burleson RBI-single. Kurtz scored again when he led off with a double, and was driven-in by the exciting Henry Bolte on a sac-fly and led to a 5-2 score.<\/p>\n
Bolte had a recent 12-for-12 streak at AAA Las Vegas that included multi-homer games, and the Organization HAD to promote him. He went 2-for-2 with a walk on the day and went to bed Wednesday with a career batting average of 1.000!<\/p>\n
Zack Gelof continued to cement his roster spot when he led off the 8th-inning with a rocket-blast home run that traveled 403-feet to deep center field, and it finalized the 6-2 victory.<\/p>\n
(Cardinals: 5-4)
\nKurtz opened the game with another dramatic homer, a 442-foot bomb that was an incredible 111.8 off the bat, and it gave the Athletics a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n
Starter Jacob Lopez allowed just one single through 4 1\/3 innings, sprinkling in three walks before giving up a solo-hr to Victor Scott II in the fifth.<\/p>\n
The Cardinals grabbed another run on a solo-home run by Walker in the 6th-inning, and the next batter, Masyn Winn hit a dribbler back to Lopez, who threw it away. The subsequent throw to 2nd-base was also errant and it allowed Winn to advance to third base. He later scored on a Gorman single for a 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n
Gelof homered in the seventh before the A\u2019s loaded them again for a Langeliers RBI-single that gave the A\u2019s the 4-3 lead they carried into the ninth inning.<\/p>\n
After two quick outs in the ninth, Perkins hit Whetherholt on a 3-2 count\u2026one pitch away!! Ivan Herrera hit the next pitch for an RBI-single, tying the game 4-4. Walker hit the first pitch he saw for an RBI-double and took the finale 5-4.<\/p>\n
Next: Giants @ Athletics Today: 6:40pm Sutter Health Park, West Sacramento<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tim Byrnes It was a rough way to lose a series! The A\u2019s continued the habit of losing the series opener, powered through to a solid win in Wednesday\u2019s game, and lost a heartbreaker in the finale. The series came down to one pitch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11059],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96431"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96433,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96431\/revisions\/96433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/midvalleysports.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}