A’s bounce back, crushing 5 HRs to edge Brewers in Las Vegas — PHOTOS (original) (raw)

It appeared early on Tuesday’s game between the Athletics and Brewers would be another home run derby after the two teams hit three home runs in the first two innings at Las Vegas Ballpark.

There weren’t as many total homers as the 11 long balls on Monday, (or runs, or hits) but the A’s kept up their home run-hitting ways and bounced back for 7-5 victory .

Tyler Soderstom’s two-run home run and Jonah Heim’s solo shot in the fifth inning gave the A’s the lead as they hit five home runs in the second of the Athletics’ six-game run in their future city.

“We did a nice job with our bats,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “We got some big hits. We added onto a lead tonight, which is — we talk about the formula all the time, is to get that extra add on run.”

The final game of the three-game set between the A’s (32-25) and Brewers (41-24) is set for 6:05 p.m. Wednesday.

Five different A’s hit home runs. Zack Gelof extended his hitting streak to 14 games in the sixth, with the A’s leading 6-5, by hitting a solo home run to lead off the inning for an insurance run.

“I feel like its really a battle to string together a big inning (offensively) and you can get some zeros, that’s the name of the game this week,” A’s first baseman Nick Kurtz said. “If you put the ball in the air, there’s a good chance it could go. Pitchers have a really hard job this week, so as an offense we got to pick them up.”

Starting pitcher J.T. Ginn just missed giving the A’s a quality start, going into the sixth inning holding 6-3 lead. The right-hander appeared to be getting out of a jam in the sixth.

After allowing the first two runners in the sixth to reach base, Ginn gave up a run on a ground out and had two outs working on No. 9 hitter David Hamilton.

On a called ball four, A’s catcher Jonah Heim challenged the call, but the ABS review never showed up on the big screen. Home plate umpire Adam Hamari announced to the crowd that there were “technical difficulties” with the ABS system and Hamilton was given first base on the walk.

Christian Yelich followed with a single to score Garrett Mitchell to get Milwaukee within one run. That chased Ginn, but reliever Elvis Alvardo struck out Jackson Chourio to end the inning.

“J.T. hasn’t given up that many runs I think in the last five or six starts, but he grinded and gave us what we needed out of the start,” Kotsay said.

Ginn earned the win, his second in his last three starts, pitching 5⅔ innings with five strikeouts and five earned runs on eight hits. Ginn gave up a two-run homer to Chourio as Milwaukee went ahead 2-0 in the first inning.

The A’s answered with Nick Kurtz hitting a solo homer in the bottom of the inning. Henry Bolte gave the A’s the lead in the second, hitting his first MLB homer, a two-run shot, and gave them a 3-2 lead.

Sal Frelick’s RBI single in the fourth inning tied the game at 3-3, and the score remained even until Soderstrom and Heim hit their homers in the bottom of the fifth.

Heim finished 3-for-4 and lead the A’s, their only player with multiple hits Tuesday. Mason Barnett earned the save in a two-inning effort for the A’s with four strikeouts. Barnett and Alvarado combined for eight strikeouts in 3⅓ innings of work.

“The job J.T. did, Alvarado and (Mason) Barnett — these conditions to pitch in are tough. They’re challenging. No question,” Kotsay said.

“Elvis to come in — Elvis was electric tonight. He threw the ball, probably as good as he’s throwing it with us in the year plus that he’s been here.”

Mitchell had three hits to lead Milwaukee.

Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.