BALTIMORE -- Of the seven A’s to bat in the eighth inning Wednesday night, all seven put the ball in play. Of the seven batted balls, only two eclipsed Statcast’s 95-mph “hard-hit” exit velocity threshold. One left the bat at 21.4 mph, traveled 11 feet. Another traveled seven.
And yet in the end, it amounted to the A’s most important offensive inning in about a week.
Thus was the strange anatomy of the three-run rally that propelled the A’s to their 8-4 win over the Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. On a night when the A’s jumped ahead on two long homers and watched Ken Waldichuk take a lead into the seventh, it ultimately took small ball -- including a perfectly executed safety squeeze -- to snap their six-game losing streak.
“That’s not a reflection of the Oakland Athletics in general,” manager Mark Kotsay joked. “But we played offense tonight. Sometimes you have to do that to get out of funks. I was real happy with how we executed.”
The A’s will take it. They were outscored 54-18 during their six-game skid, entered the day ranked 27th in baseball in runs scored and recently learned they’ll be without their most accomplished returning hitter, Seth Brown, for 4-6 weeks due to injury. The 15 hits they compiled Wednesday weren’t only a season high, they were Oakland’s highest output since Sept. 15, 2021 (at Kansas City). And seven came from the eighth inning on.
A half-inning after the A’s watched a two-run lead evaporate in the bottom of the seventh, Brent Rooker and Jace Peterson notched consecutive singles off Keegan Akin before Aledmys Díaz pushed a perfectly placed bunt past Cionel Pérez to load the bases with no outs.
Jesús Aguilar followed with a go-ahead sac fly, before Kevin Smith drove in another run with another bunt -- the successful safety squeeze. Carlos Pérez’s 79.4 mph single drove home another, and Esteury Ruiz added a 74.2-mph RBI single in the ninth to produce the final margin.
All told, the A’s scored four runs on seven singles, a sac fly and a sac bunt over the final two innings. They also drew a walk and stole two bases.
“The resiliency of our club came out tonight,” Kotsay said. “This team is showing their grit and obviously fighting through some adversity. I couldn’t be more proud of that group out there today.”
The outburst salvaged a very encouraging outing from Waldichuk (3 ER, 6 1/3 IP), who became the first A’s pitcher to complete six innings this year and nearly the first A’s starter to record a win in 2023.
“I felt like I had pretty good command of my [fastball] today, was able to put it where I wanted it and spin when I needed to,” Waldichuk said. “I was just trying to stay competitive … and then our offense kinda pulled through.”
Twelve games into the season, the A’s are the only team in baseball without a win from a starter; since relocating to Oakland in 1968, it’s the deepest into the season they’ve gone without a starter recording a victory. Wednesday’s instead went to right-hander Chad Smith, who worked a scoreless ninth only a few hours removed from a red-eye flight from Triple-A Las Vegas. Smith said he got about an hour’s sleep prior to his first career victory, which he wasn’t even aware of until a reporter informed him of the official scorer’s decision at his postgame locker.
“I was told it was a save,” Smith said. “I guess if you say it’s a win, it’s a win. It’s great. This is why we play the game.”