WEST SACRAMENTO -- Jacob Wilson approached fellow rookie sensation Nick Kurtz inside the Athletics clubhouse on Tuesday afternoon, holding a yellow T-shirt featuring a cartoon image of Kurtz and his "Big Amish" nickname in green lettering.
“I was like, ‘Hey, if I wear your shirt, am I going to hit a homer?’” Wilson asked Kurtz. “Just because he’s been hitting homers like crazy. He was like, ‘Yeah, dude, do it.’”
Fast forward a few hours later. Wilson stepped to the plate facing Tigers starter Charlie Morton with two runners in the first inning and clubbed the first pitch he saw -- a 95.9 mph sinker on the inner-half of the zone -- over the left-field wall for a three-run blast.
After his trip around the bases, Wilson high-fived Kurtz and Shea Langeliers, both of whom were on base after leading off with back-to-back singles. A few seconds later, Wilson unbuttoned his kelly green Athletics jersey on his way back to the dugout to reveal the yellow "Big Amish" T-shirt, much to the delight of Kurtz and the rest of his teammates.
“Sure enough, I homered and had to show it,” Wilson said. “Kurtz was like, ‘Oh, look at the shirt!’ That was pretty cool. We’re obviously just having a lot of fun.”
How could they not be having fun? After Tuesday night’s 7-6 walk-off victory in the 10th inning over the Tigers, who maintain the best record (78-56) in the American League, the A’s (62-72) are now 20-10 since July 24, good for the second-best record in MLB over that span.
That first-inning moment following Wilson’s 12th homer of the year provided some insight into what the A’s have brewing with this young group. There is no shortage of talent -- beyond Kurtz and Wilson, who stand a strong chance to finish one-two in AL Rookie of the Year voting, the core also includes Shea Langeliers, baseball’s home run leader since the All-Star break, and Tyler Soderstrom, who delivered a clutch game-tying single in the 10th and brought his season RBI total to a team-leading 76.
But it goes beyond the talent. There’s a brotherhood inside that A’s clubhouse, one that is seemingly growing stronger by the day.
“They’re definitely building something, for sure,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “Kurtz, this young man, it was pretty quickly that I thought he could become a guy who would lead in the clubhouse. I think that’s come about in its own way. There are a lot of guys in there that rally around him.
“It’s a special group right now. The way that they’re interacting and the way they care about each other. They’re picking each other up.”
Picking each other up was exactly what the A’s did on Tuesday night. After Elvis Alvarado surrendered a go-ahead run with two outs in the top of the 10th, the offense immediately responded by mounting a rally in the bottom half.
It started with Soderstrom’s game-tying hit. From there, a pair of walks by Wilson and Lawrence Butler, with a sacrifice bunt by Colby Thomas in between, set the stage for Darell Hernaiz, who stepped to the plate with the bases loaded.
“I figured it was probably going to come down to me,” Hernaiz said. “I wasn’t thinking about much. I was just making sure I don’t expand, because that’s just going to play into the pitcher. The more I’ve played and talked to people, the pressure is on the pitcher as much as you feel pressure while you’re hitting. I really just wanted to make sure I don’t swing at a pitcher’s pitch, and that was pretty much it.”
Facing Tigers reliever Will Vest, Hernaiz watched five pitches go by, the fifth resulting in a walk that brought home Soderstrom as the game-winning run.
“This was another great team effort,” Kotsay said. “The team’s got the confidence to win baseball games. I think it really clicked in Seattle in that Saturday win that we grinded and beat a good ballclub. … We did a great job all around of executing the fundamentals. Again, the bullpen comes in and does a phenomenal job.”