Brent Rooker hit two home runs to bring his season total to 33, and JJ Bleday and Shea Langeliers also homered as the Oakland Athletics defeated the Texas Rangers 9-2 on Friday night. This win marked their first back-to-back winning months in over three years.
Oakland has a 14-11 record in August with one game left this month, following a 15-9 record in July that ended a franchise-record streak of 11 consecutive months with losing records. The A’s (59-76) hadn’t experienced consecutive winning months since May-June 2021.
“These guys have really taken a mindset that they want to accomplish this … build this confidence going into the offseason,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said.
“It shows the progress we’ve made. We’ve done a good job throughout the course of the year kind of setting small goals for ourselves to achieve,” Rooker said. “Super proud of our guys the way we competed the last two months.
And obviously we want to continue that moving forward and do it again in September.”
Bleday, who had a five-hit game on Thursday, broke a 1-1 tie in the third inning with his 20th homer, a three-run shot that just cleared the right-center field wall. This came after Jacob Wilson and Rooker walked against Texas starter Jon Gray (5-6).
“Long ball got him. That third inning when he needed his command, he lost it,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “Was good at times, but was just too erratic with his command tonight.”
Rooker also homered in the first and seventh innings. Langeliers finished a four-run ninth inning with his 23rd homer, a two-run shot right after Bleday’s RBI double.
The A’s hit four home runs in this game, following an 11-homer performance in Cincinnati that tied their record for the most home runs in a three-game series. “Their at-bats have been good this road trip,” Kotsay said. “There’s a lot of momentum to the offense.”
