Rooker's go-ahead double secures A's win in extras

BALTIMORE -- So far this season, no team has been more reliant on the home run than the A’s.

More than half -- 53.2 percent -- of the A’s runs have come via the long ball, by far the most in baseball. But the offense, as a whole, has been inconsistent to begin the year. The A’s can slug; their 29 homers through 27 games are tied for the seventh-most in MLB, and they’ve now gone 11 straight games with at least one homer.

Friday provided an example of what can happen when they do a little bit of everything else, too.

Held to little more than Shea Langliers’ solo homer for much of the night by Corbin Burnes and two Baltimore relievers, the A’s put together a game-tying rally in the ninth off Craig Kimbrel before Brent Rooker’s go-ahead double in the 10th inning. Fireballing closer Mason Miller struck out Gunnar Henderson to strand the tying run at third and lock down a 3-2 win, his seventh save in seven tries.

“We’ve shown some character, but to come back against an elite closer and a good baseball team, we showed that grit tonight,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “We put together some at-bats. The guys we needed to produce came through tonight, and some other guys contributed as well.”

The biggest hits came from Rooker, who also doubled to begin Oakland’s ninth-inning rally off Kimbrel and scored the tying run on Abraham Toro’s double later in the frame. The A’s also drew three walks off Kimbrel but squandered three chances to pull ahead, stranding the bases loaded after JJ Bleday was cut down at home trying to score on an errant pitch.

It was a bang-bang play at home with Bleday and Kimbrel arriving at the same time that Kimbrel received a flip from Adley Rutschman, and Bleday was initially ruled safe. But the call was overturned and umpires ruled there was no obstruction even though Kimbrel and Bleday collided at home plate.

“My question was if they could rule it obstruction,” Kotsay said. “The answer was, with possession of the ball, [Kimbrel] was allowed to be in front of the base. Which was right. It has to be egregious. It was a play where Craig is kinda falling down and making a play on the ball. So it’s not an egregious act, it was more of a baseball play. That was a fair explanation for me.”

When the dust settled, the game was still tied. And that eventually set the stage for Rooker, whose hits rewarded Mitch Spence’s three scoreless innings of long relief and salvaged a night that Oakland received a strong Ross Stripling outing (5 2/3 IP, 2 ER).

“We’ve been playing well and tonight’s no different -- that’s kinda who we are as a team, that’s our identity and that’s going to be our identity all year long,” Rooker said. “All night, we battled. Those were really gritty, really mature at-bats from us late in the game to be able to chip away and be able to pull a win out there.”

The A’s 2023 home run and RBI leader, Rooker is emblematic of the team’s early boom-or-bust nature. Entering Thursday, his last non-homer hit came way back on April 6. In the eight games after that, he went 3-for-23 -- with three homers.

All told, the A’s have still scored three or fewer runs in each of their past eight games and are hitting .183 as a team over that stretch. They know getting Rooker going is key to igniting their offense on a more consistent basis.

“I know I’ve had to be patient and wait for the results to come,” Rooker said. “Hopefully tonight is the first step in that direction.”

Said Kotsay: “It’s a slow start, but he still provides the power … it’s a matter of when he gets locked in, he gets locked in. We hope tonight is a night that he continues going forward with those quality at-bats and continues to get the results.”