A’s win 5-2 behind Bleday heroics and shutdown bullpen effort

Home runs and bullpen proves to be the recipe yet again as the A’s will go for the sweep tomorrow

Ladies and gentlemen, the A’s are officially on a three-game winning streak.

They didn’t get the best outing from starter Alex Wood tonight, but the bullpen certainly picked up the slack yet again. Offensively, they did just enough against Pittsburgh Pirates starter Mitch Keller while adding some key runs late as JJ Bleday was tonight's offensive MVP for the A’s sending two home runs en route to a 5-2 victory.

The Pirates struck gold just three batters into the game tonight with Connor Joe smacking a solo shot to left, but the A’s returned the favor in the next inning.

Shea Langeliers began the inning sending a lead-off double down the left field line, and the next batter, Abraham Toro, brought him in immediately with an RBI single to right. Darell Hernaiz singled to put runners at first and second for Tyler Nevin, and Nevin extended his hitting streak to eight sending a bloop shot to right field that found some grass and gave the A’s a 2-1 lead. Nevin had another solid night tonight going 2-3 at the dish.

Besides just the Joe home run, Wood flirted with damage all outing.

In the fourth, a single, a ten-pitch walk, and an overturned sacrifice bunt call set up second and third for the Pirates, and Ke’Bryan Hayes clutched up with a sacrifice fly to right to tie the game at two.

This would be the last of Wood as Mitch Spence took over pitching reigns in the fifth. Wood went four rocky innings while allowing four hits, four walks, and two runs. He threw 93 pitches and got into six three-ball counts. Wood entered the game third-worst in the MLB with 19.2 pitches thrown on average per inning, and tonight's outing didn’t do him any justice.

The A’s reclaimed the lead in the fifth with Bleday scorching a solo shot down the right field line. Two years ago Bleday recorded his first major league hit against Keller in Pittsburgh — safe to say Bleday doesn’t mind facing him.

Keller was decent tonight for the Pirates, but he just didn’t get enough run support to escape the loss. Keller struck out seven over five-innings of three run ball. He’s now gone 38 straight starts going five innings, the most in baseball currently.

As for the A’s pitching, thankfully they have Spence in long relief. He was masterful yet again for the A’s working three scoreless frames including a five-pitch sixth inning. Through 16 innings this season, Spence has allowed six runs while striking out 14 and walking just five total. He also threw just 28 pitches tonight — 65 less than Wood in one less inning.

With the score 3-2 and a runner on first, Bleday stepped up again in the bottom of the seventh in another noisy fashion. It was a lefty-lefty showdown and Josh Fleming tried to sneak a two-seam on the inner half but Bleday was ready getting the barrel through and sending a bomb to centerfield. His first career two home run day grew the A’s lead to 5-2.

Adding two more home runs tonight, the A’s have recorded 51.7% of their runs this season via the long ball which is the highest mark in baseball. It’s impressive, but the sustainability is a different question.

Lucas Erceg was electric again for the A’s in relief striking out the side in the eighth highlighted by a 99 mph swing-and-miss punch out on a sinker of Andrew McCutchen.

Following suit was Mason Miller who was thrilling in his own regard of course. Miller struck out the side himself including the game-ender over O’Neill Cruz on a disgusting wipeout slider. Miller has gone ten straight games with at least two strikeouts, and he now has 28 total over 13.1 innings of work in 2024.

It was lockdown day for the A’s bullpen as they combined to go five scoreless innings striking out eight and walking no one. With the win, the A’s have won back-to-back series and end April with a 14-17 record even after starting the season 1-7. They sit 3.5 games behind the first-place Seattle Mariners.

The A’s will go for their first series sweep tomorrow at 12:37 PM PDT when the two teams line it up for a final time. Ross Stripling will get the starting nod, and 23-year-old righty Quinn Priester will counter.