ANAHEIM -- Jeff McNeil tends to get overlooked in this Athletics lineup in comparison to the sluggers that reside near the top of the order.
On Wednesday night, McNeil’s bat made itself heard loud and clear.
Leading off the bottom of the ninth with the A’s trailing by a run, McNeil lined a game-tying home run over the right-field wall at Angel Stadium off Angels reliever Kirby Yates. The clutch swing helped push the game to extras, where Tyler Soderstrom’s RBI single in the 10th put the A’s back ahead for good in a 6-5 win.
McNeil has long developed a reputation around the league for being a pesky hitter, and his ninth-inning at-bat was textbook. The 34-year-old second baseman got to a 1-1 count against Yates, then fouled off four consecutive pitches to stay alive. On the seventh pitch, McNeil golfed a sweeper below the zone out to right field a Statcast-projected 364 feet.