Nick Kurtz smacked two homers and knocked in five runs while Jeff McNeil had one blast and drove in four to help the Athletics roll to an 11-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday in West Sacramento, Calif.
Kurtz and McNeil each had three hits as the Athletics won for the sixth time in the past eight games. The 15-hit attack continues an assault that saw the A’s score 47 runs during a six-game span in Las Vegas last week.
Henry Bolte and Lawrence Butler each had two hits and scored twice and Tyler Soderstrom had two hits and scored once for the A’s.
Athletics starter J.T. Ginn (5-3) gave up one run, which was unearned, and six hits in six innings. He struck out three and walked two while winning his third straight decision.
Pittsburgh’s Endy Rodriguez homered while going 3-for-3 with a walk. Jake Mangum added an RBI single for the Pirates, who lost for the eighth time in the past 10 games.
Jared Jones (1-1) allowed five runs and eight hits over four innings. He fanned four and walked one.
The Athletics jumped on top by plating three runs in the second inning.
Bolte hit a one-out double and scored on McNeil’s single. Kurtz followed with a seven-pitch at-bat that ended with a two-run homer to left-center, making it 3-0.
Pittsburgh scored in the fourth after Nick Gonzales reached on an error by A’s third baseman Zack Gelof. Rodriguez followed with a single and both runners moved up on Tyler Callihan’s infield out before Mangum singled home Gonzales.
In the bottom of the fourth, Butler led off with an infield single. One out later, McNeil sent a second-pitch changeup over the wall in right to give the A’s a 5-1 advantage.
The Athletics added on in the fifth. Soderstrom led off with a single, and Jacob Wilson followed with a ground-rule double. One out later, Gelof singled to center, driving in Soderstrom.
The Pirates were one out away from getting out of the seventh when Brendan Lowe booted a bouncing hopper by Gelof, a mistake that eventually led to five unearned runs. Butler followed with an RBI double off the wall in left-center to make it 7-1.
Bolte hit an infield single and McNeil delivered a run-scoring single. Kurtz came up and again went the opposite way, sending an 0-2 fastball from Carmen Mlodzinski just over the fence in left-center to make it 11-1.
Rodriguez homered with two outs in the eighth.
–Field Level Media
