The Oakland Athletics aim to extend their winning streak to four games on Thursday when they vie for a three-game series sweep of the reeling Reds in Cincinnati.
The Athletics followed up a pair of one-run victories by rebounding after squandering a five-run lead in a 9-6 win over the Reds on Wednesday night. Seth Brown capped a two-homer performance with a three-run shot in the eighth inning for Oakland.
“That (eighth) inning there, we haven’t had an inning like that very often this season,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. “To answer back in that fashion, it just shows the character of the group right now.
“The offense has got confidence and that is how you win baseball games, really. And it’s great to see that from this group right now.”
Lawrence Butler homered to lead off the game and Brent Rooker added his career-high 31st of the season for Oakland, which has scored 18 runs over its past three games. The Athletics mustered just 20 runs over their previous eight games.
The victory Wednesday came hours after Kotsay announced outfielder Miguel Andujar would undergo season-ending surgery to repair a core muscle injury.
“It just got to a point where it was uncomfortable sleeping and impacting his daily life as well. We’re going to miss him,” Kotsay said. “He really was a big part of this club’s success over the last few months. Hopefully, the surgery will go well, and he’ll get back here (next season).”
While Oakland has cobbled together a few nice victories in a row, Cincinnati has dropped nine of its past 12 games.
Tyler Stephenson isn’t to blame for the Reds’ recent struggles, however. He had an RBI double to ignite a six-run seventh inning and extend his hitting streak to 11 games.
Will Benson belted a three-run homer to give Cincinnati a 6-5 lead before Athletics provided a quick response.
“We put together a really nice inning with two outs. Come all the way back and take the lead and their offense was able to turn it around against us,” Reds manager David Bell said.
Cincinnati will look to salvage the finale of the series against Oakland right-hander J.T. Ginn (0-0, 2.45 ERA), who will make his first major league start on Thursday.
Ginn, 25, followed up two scoreless innings of relief against the Tampa Bay Rays on Aug. 21 with one run on one hit in 1 1/3 innings versus the Milwaukee Brewers three days later.
Like Ginn, Cincinnati rookie right-hander Julian Aguiar (1-0, 3.60) will make his third appearance in the majors on Thursday.
Aguiar, 23, allowed one homer and two runs in both of his starts. Cincinnati’s Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2023 walked away with the win against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Saturday after permitting three hits and striking out four in six innings.
“My mentality wasn’t to come up here and think, ‘I’m going to be here for a week,’ ” Aguiar said. “It was, ‘Come take a spot.’ ”
–Field Level Media
