BALTIMORE -- You may not be able to tell by their 52-67 record this season, but this Athletics lineup is without question performing as one of the top offenses in all of baseball.
Several hitters on this A’s roster have proven capable of a monster performance on any given night. Sometimes, the entire unit clicks, producing a game like Saturday’s 11-3 victory over the Orioles at Camden Yards.
Shea Langeliers stood out, remaining red-hot at the plate by launching his 23rd homer as part of a 3-for-4 effort to mark the sixth time this season that he’s finished a triple shy of the cycle. But the A’s catcher was just one of six hitters who reached base at least twice in the 13-hit explosion that resulted in the club’s 10th time scoring at least 10 runs in a game this year.
“Offensively, when we get going, there’s some momentum behind it,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “They feed off one another, which you saw tonight. The at-bats continue to be productive. Overall, really good offensive night.”
In addition to Langeliers, Brent Rooker crushed his 24th homer of the year -- a three-run blast to left in the third. There was also rookie sensation Nick Kurtz, who extended his on-base streak to 24 games with two hits.
That trio, along with Tyler Soderstrom -- all four have at least 20 homers and 50 RBIs -- forms the heart of one of the most potent offenses seen from the A’s in quite some time. The A’s rank in the top 10 in MLB in team batting average (tied for sixth, .254), slugging percentage (fifth, .433), OPS (seventh, .752) and home runs (sixth, 163).
The last A’s team that finished top 10 in MLB in those four categories was the 1988 club, which captured the American League pennant after finishing the regular season tied for fourth in batting average (.263), fourth in slugging (.399), fourth in OPS (.735) and second in home runs (156).
“We’re just building confidence, and the momentum is going from one guy to the next,” Langeliers said. “It’s a lot of fun when you stack a night like this and everybody is producing.”
Saturday’s offensive outburst was plenty of support for rookie starter Jack Perkins, who bounced back after surrendering a three-run homer to Gunnar Henderson in the first to retire 18 of his final 19 batters to earn his first Major League win in what was his second big league start.
The 25-year-old right-hander allowed three runs on three hits and one walk with five strikeouts across six innings. Even the three hits occurred on pitches that Perkins said he felt were well-executed, including Henderson’s homer, which came on an 0-2 fastball up and in on the corner of the zone.
“Honestly, [the] first three hits I gave up, I thought I made good pitches,” Perkins said. “After that, I just kept telling myself, ‘You’re making good pitches and the right pitches. Just stick with it.’ The rest of the outing took care of itself.”
Perkins did not allow a hit after the first, and his one walk snapped a streak of 15 batters retired in a row.
Perhaps most encouraging was Perkins’ fastball velocity.
Because he had moved into a bullpen role to begin his Major League career before making his first MLB start last Sunday, Perkins is still building up his workload to be a starter again. On Saturday, Kotsay indicated that the A’s were targeting a pitch count of around 80.
Approaching the 80-pitch mark in the sixth, Perkins remained around 94-96 mph with his fastball as he finished at 84 pitches (56 strikes) through six innings.
“He’s a big, strong kid,” Kotsay said. “We pushed him as far as we could tonight and almost took him to 90 [pitches]. It was a bigger jump than we probably anticipated. But he felt good. … The way it was coming out of his hand at that point, you let him finish the inning.”