Athletics blow out Orioles 19-8

No mercy

Well how about that? Oakland bounced back in a big way at the Coliseum on Saturday afternoon, smashing the Baltimore Orioles by a final of 19-8. What a game.

Runs, runs, runs!

It didn’t take long for the Green & Gold to get things started today. Likely All-Star Brent Rooker got the scoring started today by blasting his 18th home run of the season in the first, a 3-run shot that was just a taste of things to come:

And when we mean a taste, that was a taste of things to come today. The second inning made Rooker’s blast look like child’s play. Shortstop Max Shuemann joined Rooker in on the fun with his own 3-run blast in the second:

That blast was #5 for Shuemann here in his rookie season. The 27-year old has gone through the expected rookie struggles but has more than held his own during a year where he wasn’t expected to get much run for the big league squad. He’s just keeping the seat warm for top prospect Jacob Wilson (who is on the cusp of making the jump to the majors) but has done an admirable job taking over for the injured Darell Hernaiz.

After that Shuemann blast the Athletics just kept going, loading the bases for catcher Shea Langeliers. He cashed in Oakland’s seventh run today, collecting an RBI single. And just one batter later second baseman Zack Gelof got in on the fun with a 2-run double of his own:

Whew. It wasn’t even the third inning yet but the Athletics had built up a seemingly insurmountable 10-0 lead after only two frames. And they wouldn’t stop there, scoring two more in the third courtesy of a Langeliers bomb:

Number #17 for Bangaliers right there. And that pushed the Athletics lead to a whopping 12-0 without even breaking a sweat. Just gotta finish these innings off now, right?

Medina strong

On the other side of the ball sophomore right-hander Luis Medina locked down the vaunted Baltimore lineup for five solid innings, allowing just one run off of six hits. It wasn’t the most dominant performance from Medina as he walked three and K’d three, but Medina didn’t need to be Pedro Martinez today. All the young righty needed to do was soak up these innings and not let Baltimore swing their way back into this game. He did that and then some today, shoving and keeping Baltimore from even thinking of getting back into this contest. It hasn’t been the easiest second season for Medina but today was an encouraging performance.

More runs, more runs, more runs…

No one said Uncle, so the Oakland bats just kept up the damage. Next up was Tyler Nevin, who made it a 13-0 game with his own solo tater:

That was Nevin’s sixth blast of the season but just his second since his return to the big league squad. Adding on top of that was Miguel Andujar, who knocked in a run in the fourth and then two more in the sixth. One more Brent Rooker RBI sac fly made it a ridiculous 17-1 after six frames. At this point it’s already the biggest outburst of the season for the good guys, and there was even more to come!

Baltimore fights back

Staked to a pretty much insurmountable lead, the Oakland bullpen just had to finish off three simple innings to get the win and head home for the day. Taking over for Medina out of the bullpen was lefty Jack O’Loughlin, but things did not go smoothly for the rookie reliever today. Thankfully he was staked to a massive lead but O’Loughlin gave up five runs today, the first five runs he’s allowed in the major leagues so far. It’d been smooth sailing so far for O’Loughlin in the Athletics colors but today wasn’t his day. Just got to chalk it up to a bad day at the park for the rookie.

But hey! At least that meltdown didn’t come in a big moment. Even after those five runs the Athletics still had a massive 17-6 lead, and there was only one inning to go. But who said the scoring was done? Rookie catcher Kyle McCann wanted in on the action and smacked his own long ball today, a 2-run shot off a fellow McCann (James):

That’s some McCann on McCann crime right there. That would finally put a bow on today’s performance, capping off the massive outburst with the team’s 18th hit of the day. And the club scored 18 times!

Baltimore added on a pair of honor runs in the ninth off TJ McFarland but that wouldn’t be nearly enough to stop the Oakland Athletics today. Despite the outburst from the Baltimore bats, the Athletics were just a few steps ahead of the O’s today.

Wowza. What a performance from the good guys. 18 hits, 6 walks, five home runs and 19 (!) runs. Add in a quality performance from Luis Medina and you got yourselves a fantastic all-around win for the good guys. Hopefully they saved some runs for tomorrow’s finale.

Speaking of, it’ll be another rookie taking the ball for the Athletics tomorrow as Mitch Spence takes the ball for his 10th start of the season. He’ll be hoping to push the Athletics to a series win against these Orioles, who will be countering Spence with stud righty Grayson Rodriguez. Not the easiest matchup in the world but if the Athletics saved even some of their juice from today they should be fine. Tomorrow, we take the series!