WEST SACRAMENTO -- Nick Kurtz is not one to visibly show when he’s in pain, which is why there was reasonable cause for concern after he fouled a ball hard off his right heel and hobbled around home plate.
The last thing the Athletics want is to lose the reigning American League Rookie of the Year for any amount of time. After getting checked out by a trainer and manager Mark Kotsay, though, it didn’t take long for him to shake it off and show everyone in the building he was just fine.
Three pitches later, Kurtz hammered a slider from Cardinals starter Matthew Liberatore, sending it a Statcast-projected 405 feet over the wall in left-center for a momentum-shifting grand slam that put the A’s ahead for good in Wednesday’s 6-2 victory at Sutter Health Park.
Kurtz later sparked another rally in the seventh with a leadoff double, eventually coming around to score on the first career RBI for A’s No. 5 prospect Henry Bolte, who notched two hits and also made an impressive diving catch in center in his Major League debut.
J.T. Ginn paced the A’s on the mound following up a stellar performance of eight innings of one-run ball in Philadelphia his last time out with another strong outing. Despite allowing nine hits and a walk, Ginn held the Cardinals to one unearned run across six innings with three strikeouts, earning his second win of the season and lowering his ERA to 3.12.