This season got away from the Athletics when they lost 20 of 21 games to fall 17 games below .500 in early June.
But two-plus months later, the Athletics are one of the hotter teams in the majors, and the American League-leading Detroit Tigers are finding it out on an up-close basis.
The soaring A’s look to complete a three-game sweep of the Tigers on Wednesday night in West Sacramento, Calif., after rallying to post victories in each of the first two contests.
Shea Langeliers’ grand slam got the Athletics going in Monday’s 8-3 victory. On Tuesday, the A’s pushed across two runs in the bottom of the 10th for a 7-6 victory, their 11th win in the past 16 games.
“This is another team effort,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said after Tuesday’s win. “This team has the confidence to win baseball games.”
Detroit moved ahead 6-5 on Zach McKinstry’s RBI single in the top of the 10th before being handed its third straight loss.
Tyler Soderstrom delivered a single to tie the score. Later in the inning, Darell Hernaiz drew a bases-loaded walk off Will Vest.
Jacob Wilson hit a three-run homer in the first inning for the Athletics and finished with four RBIs.
“You are seeing a taste of what this team can be,” Wilson said after the A’s moved within 10 games of .500 thanks to a 20-10 spurt over their last 30 contests. “We want to finish off this season and take it into next year.
“The two wins we’ve had here (against Detroit) gives us a taste of the type of baseball we can play.”
The Tigers have lost three straight games after putting together five straight wins.
Riley Greene cracked his first career grand slam for Detroit and raised his career-best totals to 32 homers and 99 RBIs. Greene is 7-for-18 with three homers and seven RBIs over the past five games.
But the Tigers didn’t always play like a team bound for the postseason as they committed two errors and were just 2-for-12 with runners in scoring position.
“We created our own mess, and we paid for it,” Detroit manager A.J. Hinch told reporters. “You can’t make those kinds of mistakes and expect to win at this level. Some of them show up on the scoreboard, some of them don’t. It was a frustrating night, and we didn’t do anything to win.”
All-Star right-hander Casey Mize (12-4, 3.68 ERA) will start the finale for the Tigers.
The No. 1 overall pick in 2018 had just nine career victories before this season’s breakout campaign. The 28-year-old overcame major arm woes along the way.
He had won three straight starts before receiving a no-decision against the Kansas City Royals last Friday, an eventual 7-5 Tigers win. Mize didn’t strike out a single batter while giving up three runs and nine hits over 5 2/3 innings.
Mize lost his lone career start against the A’s when he gave up five runs and seven hits on April 17, 2021 in Oakland. He served up three homers in the team’s 7-0 setback.
Brent Rooker is 0-for-4 with two strikeouts against Mize.
Right-hander Luis Morales (1-0, 1.72) is making his fifth appearance and fourth start of his rookie season.
Morales, 22, earned his first big league win against the Los Angeles Angels on Aug. 16 when he gave up one run and five hits over five innings in a 7-2 A’s victory. He followed up with a no-decision against the Seattle Mariners when he allowed one run and two hits over six frames last Friday, a 3-2 Mariners win.
–Field Level Media
