Murphy clubs 2 homers as A's heat up in Texas

August 18th, 2022

ARLINGTON -- When rookie catcher Shea Langeliers was called up Tuesday, A’s GM David Forst made it a point to address Sean Murphy’s role on the team.

“Sean is our starting catcher. That’s not going to change,” Forst said.

And Murphy proved just why in a 7-2 win over the Rangers on Wednesday at Globe Life Field, lifting the A’s to back-to-back wins for the first time since Aug. 3-4 against the Angels.

Murphy hit two home runs, going 3-for-5 with three runs and three RBIs. The 27-year-old has now recorded six hits in his last three games, and three homers in the last two.

Murphy’s first home run was a two-out shot 407 feet to left field to give Oakland a 1-0 lead in the first inning. What made it stand out was that it came off an 89.1 mph cutter -- a pitch Murphy hasn’t seen much success against the season. Entering the game, he was hitting .189 against cutters thrown his way in 2022.

“It shows that his approach is right. When he’s hitting the ball to the right-center-field gap or to dead center, he’s locked in,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “You know he’s locked in and his approach is good, his path is great and I think that attributes to why he stayed on that cutter tonight and hit it the way he did.”

That was the A’s lone run in a tie ballgame up until the fourth inning, when Murphy launched yet another home run -- this time a two-run blast into the Rangers’ bullpen.

“I was just trying to be aggressive, do damage, and that was it,” Murphy said.

Murphy has had a lot of success against the Rangers this season, batting .316 with three homers and six RBIs against the club entering Wednesday’s game.

Is there something about Texas?

“Everyone asks me that question. I don’t know,” Murphy said. “No rhyme, no reason. I guess I see it a little here. It’s one of those things where you say that and tomorrow I take an O-fer, so who knows?”

The last time -- and only other time -- Murphy had a multi-homer game was as a rookie on Sept. 10, 2019, in a 21-7 win against Houston. This season, Murphy has hit 16 home runs, which is tied with the Braves' William Contreras for fifth among catchers. Seattle’s Cal Raleigh leads all catchers with 18 home runs, while Willson Contreras (Cubs), Salvador Perez (Royals) and Will Smith (Dodgers) sit in a tie for second with 17.

“I feel like that kind of goes underrated quite often -- when a catcher can hit,” said Adam Oller, who tossed his first career quality start in the win. “‘[Murphy is] just one of those guys that when he puts the barrel on the ball, it goes a long way, and it’s a very hard exit velo every time.

“So it makes things easy for me.”

Murphy’s home runs had exit velocities of 108.6 mph and 102.3 mph, respectively.

Murphy wasn’t the only catcher to homer, though.

Langeliers, the club’s No. 1 prospect who is assuming a back-up role behind Murphy while getting at-bats at DH, hit his first Major League home run in the eighth inning to pad on a couple insurance runs for Oakland.

“Actually, I owe him 100 bucks,” Kotsay said. “Because early in batting practice, I told him if he stayed on the ball and hit it out to right-center in the bullpen, he’d get 100 bucks.”

“Yeah, I think he does,” Langeliers said.