WEST SACRAMENTO -- Austin Wynns’ lead couldn’t have been much bigger.
With the bases loaded, a full count and two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning, the Athletics catcher was compelled to take off from first base on the payoff pitch to teammate Jeff McNeil. Wynns got such a great jump he was practically standing on second base before the pitch even came in. And when McNeil lashed a center-cut fastball into the right-field corner, Wynns could practically walk home.
All of a sudden, the A’s had a big lead of their own.
McNeil’s three-run double in the sixth broke things open in Sunday’s 7-1 win over the Guardians at Sutter Health Park. It was a key moment in a victory that showed plenty of encouraging signs for the A’s offense moving forward.
“Huge at-bat, big momentum swing,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “We talked about that a lot: the offense’s ability to add on in those innings.”
McNeil had the biggest hit, but Sunday’s win was truly a team effort: The club’s 11 hits came from eight different players, with left fielder Tyler Soderstrom (3-for-4) leading the way. For the second time in three days against the Guardians, every A’s starter reached base safely.
But unlike Friday’s 8-5 loss -- or Saturday’s 14-6 defeat -- the A’s capitalized this time to avoid a series sweep.
“Today was a big game for us,” Kotsay said. “Dropping these last two games, you could feel a difference in the club emotionally, I think. There was a feeling of, ‘Man, we should have won those games.’”
With at least five runs on the scoreboard in each of their past five games, the A’s are certainly finding some offensive consistency, even when their pitching has struggled at times. (That sure wasn’t an issue Sunday: Aaron Civale tossed six innings of one-run ball against his former team, and the bullpen closed things out with three hitless frames.)
That production isn’t just coming from Jacob Wilson, Brent Rooker and Nick Kurtz at the top of the lineup, either. The A’s Nos. 4, 5 and 6 hitters -- Colby Thomas, Zack Gelof and Soderstrom -- all launched solo home runs on Sunday.
Gelof and Soderstrom hit the club’s fourth set of back-to-back homers this season to start the fifth inning, breaking a 1-1 tie and giving the A’s the lead for good. Thomas’ solo shot, on the first pitch thrown by Guardians rookie left-hander Parker Messick in the second inning, opened the scoring.
“That guy’s been pitching his butt off and he’s been pitching really well,” Thomas said. “To be able to put one on the board that early is a good feeling.”
McNeil struck the decisive blow against reliever Peyton Pallette in the sixth, scoring Gelof, Soderstrom and Wynns to give the A’s considerable breathing room. The veteran was batting in the No. 9 spot for the fourth time this season and the third time this week, and the decision paid off: McNeil singled in the fifth before his bases-clearing double an inning later.
Acquired from the Mets in an offseason trade, McNeil is batting .314 on the season, eighth among American League qualifiers. His .801 OPS is his best since 2022 (.836), the year he claimed the National League batting title with New York thanks to a .326 average.
“Man, he can hit,” Thomas said. “He can really hit. He’s got some awesome bat-to-ball skills, and I really enjoy watching him every day.”
McNeil’s recent production out of the nine-hole has been huge for a team whose No. 9 hitters took a .195 average (24th in MLB) and .526 OPS (27th) into Sunday. The No. 8 spot hasn’t fared much better, with the A’s ranking last in batting average (.168) and 27th in OPS (.505) coming into the day.
Even so, the A’s entered Sunday in first place in the AL West and departed for their six-game road trip to Philadelphia (Tuesday-Thursday) and Baltimore (Friday-Sunday) in the same position. That’s a novelty for a club that has seen some very slow starts in recent seasons, but it hasn’t changed much in the clubhouse.
“I think we approach the game the same every day,” Thomas said. “We just want to go out there and win. I’m sure everybody knows where we’re at in the standings, and we’re just going to try to continue to play like we have been playing.”
If the A’s can manage that, they’ll be in line for some more big leads in the days to come.