Key takeaways after A's stung just one pitch from victory

WEST SACRAMENTO – You can always look back at the events in a game that led up to a critical moment, but on Thursday afternoon, the Athletics truly fell one pitch short of what should have been a series victory over the Cardinals.

Holding a one-run lead as he took over in the ninth inning, Jack Perkins responded to a leadoff single allowed to Yohel Pozo by retiring the next two batters to put the A’s on the precipice of a win. He reached two strikes on JJ Wetherholt with two outs. Then, on a 2-2 count, Perkins fired a sweeper inside that hit Wetherholt on the back leg, thus opening the floodgates.

From there, Perkins surrendered back-to-back RBI hits to Iván Herrera and Jordan Walker. In the span of two batters, a one-run lead flipped to a one-run deficit that sunk the A’s in a 5-4 loss at Sutter Health Park.

“We beat ourselves today in that aspect,” said manager Mark Kotsay, referencing the hit batter and two A’s errors. “The mistake is just trying to overthrow the [sweeper] and putting the tying run in scoring position without a hit. We talk all the time about how free bases end up losing games. In this situation, that cost us today.”

The A’s (22-21) remain in first place in the American League West, but having out-hit the Cardinals, 10-9, on Thursday and clawing their way back to take the lead with a three-run seventh, this is one of those losses that stings a little more than your average defeat.

“It’s a game that we should have won,” Kotsay said. “But we didn’t really play good baseball today.”

Before the A’s welcome the rival Giants for three games this weekend, here are some takeaways from the series loss to St. Louis:

Gelof’s resurgence

There is no set amount of time that must pass before you can declare a player has recaptured their form, but man does it sure feel like Zack Gelof is back to his 2023 self.

A 2-for-4 effort for Gelof Thursday was highlighted by a booming solo shot to left in the seventh to set up that go-ahead three-run rally. He’s now hit safely in 11 of his last 12 games, batting .302 (13-for-43) with four home runs and nine RBIs over that span. He’s also struck out just 10 times in 47 plate appearances during that period.

Gelof is looking a lot like the version of himself who broke out as a rookie in ‘23 by hitting .267 with an .841 OPS, 14 homers and 20 doubles in 69 games. If you ask him, he’s just a better player, period, than he was three years ago.

“A lot of people out there are going to look back to when I had success and say, ‘He’s back’ or something close to that,” Gelof said. “I feel like I’m a better player. I’ve learned a lot across the journey the past few years. I’m feeling really good. I just want to keep building on my routines and my process. Just go out there and bring it.”

Clutch Langeliers

If the game is close and Shea Langeliers is at the plate for the Athletics, you can almost guarantee he’s going to get the job done.

At the plate trailing by one with the bases loaded in the seventh, Langeliers laced a go-ahead two-run single up the middle. The slugging backstop continues to do a ton of damage in the late innings, now 21-for-48 (.438) with 10 RBIs in the seventh inning or later. The 21 hits are fourth-most in the Majors so far this season.

Racking up three hits, Langeliers is now up to a Major League-leading 20 multi-hit games. That puts him in rare air when it comes to A’s history. Over the last 90 years, Langeliers’ 20 multi-hit games trail only Carney Lansford for most multi-hit games by an A’s player through the team’s first 43 games of a season.

Most multi-hit games in A’s first 43 games of a season, last 90 years:

1988 Carney Lansford: 23
2026 Shea Langeliers: 20

Kurtz power surge

Nick Kurtz hinted that he might have found his power stroke after crushing an opposite-field grand slam on Wednesday night. On Thursday, he led off the bottom of the first with a Statcast-projected 442-foot solo shot homer to nearly the exact same spot as the previous night’s, extending his league-best on-base streak to 37 games.