Urshela sparks run-scoring rally as A's claim first home win

WEST SACRAMENTO -- The line drive into left field by Gio Urshela was a swing the Athletics had been desperately seeking for over a week.

Winless over the first four home games of the inaugural season at their new temporary residence of Sutter Health Park, the A’s never so much as held a lead through those 45 innings of play.

That two-run double by Urshela off Dylan Cease in the bottom of the first inning on Tuesday night pushed the A’s ahead by two runs. Finally, they had their first lead at home, and it was one the A’s never relinquished in a 10-4 win over the Padres, marking their first victory at Sutter Health Park.

“We hadn’t had a lead in this ballpark for four straight games and then we start the way we did tonight,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “I talk a lot about the resilience of this team and the grit. It was a prime example tonight about how determined they were to fight back.”

Déjà vu struck for the A’s in the first inning, as starter Jeffrey Springs surrendered a homer to Manny Machado and an RBI double to Yuli Gurriel. For the fourth time in their first five home games, the A’s had allowed multiple runs in the opening frame. Rather than let the game snowball like it did in those previous instances, however, they immediately answered back.

The A’s jumped on Cease, who finished fourth in National League Cy Young voting last season, for a six-run first that saw them bat around the order and featured two-out RBI hits by Miguel Andujar, JJ Bleday and Max Muncy.

Urshela’s go-ahead two-out knock, though, was the moment that you could almost feel the relief of a burden being lifted that had weighed on the A’s for four home losses that saw them outscored 40-13.

“There was a different energy that changed in the dugout,” Kotsay said. “It feels good to get a win here. You don’t want to look at it and let it drag on.”

For Urshela, who entered the night 1-for-15 through four games in April, the clutch double was one of three hits on the night. He also delivered another RBI double in the third off Cease, who ended up allowing a career-high nine earned runs.

“I’ll take that for the first win at home,” Urshela said. “It felt really good. That brought a lot of confidence to this team. Today was a good day for us.”

The A’s have established their identity as a team that relies heavily on the home run. That’s what made Tuesday’s offensive outburst so encouraging. Yes, Bleday crushed his first homer of the year in the seventh – a 357-foot solo blast to right – to extend the ongoing longest season-opening streak in A's history of games with a home run to 12, but this scoring barrage was mostly about stringing together hits as eight of the nine hitters in the starting lineup reached base at least once.

“We put some hits together,” Kotsay said. “That’s not necessarily a good picture or landscape of how our offense usually works. But to get some singles and keep the line moving, that’s what we talk about. We’re going to have to win games at times by keeping the line moving, take at-bat to at-bat and not just rely on the home run.”

Springs recovered from a rocky beginning. After allowing four runs in the first two innings, the left-hander retired 13 of his final 15 batters faced, finishing with four runs allowed (three earned) in six innings to pick up his second win of the season.

“A lot of credit to the offense,” Springs said. “Cease is a really good arm. He had really good stuff, and we were able to jump all over him. That was really nice to be pitching with a lead back out there. A lot of credit to those guys for swinging the bat the way they did.”

To cap the first win of this new chapter of A’s baseball, a new win song was unveiled. While players celebrated on the field with a line of high-fives, “California Love” by Tupac blasted over the Sutter Health Park features. The classic tune does feature some fitting lyrics for the A’s current journey into a new city, as one of Tupac’s lines goes, “From Oakland to Sac-town, the Bay Area and back down, Cali is where they put they mack down, give me love!”

“I’m a Pac fan,” Kotsay said. “So, California Love sounds good.”