MESA, Ariz. -- You never want to peak too early, but with a little over a week of Spring Training left, it’s hard to imagine Shea Langeliers ever being more locked in than he was on Saturday afternoon.
One day after the A’s offense exploded for four home runs in one inning, Langeliers transformed into a one-man wrecking crew in the 12-1 win over the Royals at Hohokam Stadium by crushing three in three at-bats before exiting after catching five innings behind the plate.
Spring Training stats have only been officially kept dating back to 2006, making Langeliers’ monster day just the 15th three-homer game in spring in at least the last 20 years. There were only three such games last spring. Before those, the previous one came in 2018.
All three of Langeliers’ homers came off Royals starter Ryan Bergert, first crushing a no-doubter to left in the first inning before sending a Statcast-projected 450-foot solo blast to center in the third and 439-foot solo shot to center again in the fourth.
The homers have come in bunches for Langeliers. Saturday’s trio of big flies puts him at five home runs over his last four games and six overall this spring.
“I’ve felt good at the plate pretty much all of camp,” Langeliers said. “Obviously, Spring Training, you don’t really care that much about results. It’s nice to have a day like today, but it’s more about the approach and the process. What you’re working on in the cage and taking that into the game to see how it feels. … It’s been feeling good.”
Langeliers’ spring success is a continuation of what was a career year for him last year. He hit .277 with a career-high 31 homers in 123 games and was particularly locked in over the second half, hitting .328 with a 1.018 OPS and 19 homers in his final 57 games.
That second-half surge is what Langeliers is looking to translate over a full season.
“The second half, just kind of bottling that up and bringing that into this year,” Langeliers said. “The hitting coaches do a great job of seeing how I look when I’m going well or when I’m not doing as well. This year, I’m trying to ride that out as long as possible. How to keep myself going in the right direction and keeping it simple.”
Since 2006, there has yet to be a player in MLB to hit four homers in a spring game. That begs the question, did Langeliers campaign at all for a fourth at-bat?
“No,” Langeliers said with a laugh. “The mentality is like, ‘You kind of want to save them.’ More than anything, I’m just happy with my three good at-bats today.”