Shea Langeliers smoked a grand slam off Tigers ace Tarik Skubal in the seventh inning to help the Athletics post an 8-3 victory over Detroit on Monday night in West Sacramento, Calif.
Nick Kurtz and Colby Thomas also homered and Tyler Soderstrom had three hits for the Athletics, who won for the 10th time in their past 15 games.
Skubal (11-4) struck out 12 in 6 2/3 innings but gave up six runs (though only one earned) and seven hits. He walked none and fell to 1-2 over his last nine regular-season starts.
Tigers shortstop Zach McKinstry committed two errors, leading to the five unearned runs off Skubal.
Gleyber Torres homered and Wenceel Perez delivered a two-run double for Detroit, which lost its second straight following a five-game winning streak. Kerry Carpenter reached base four times on three hits and a walk but struck out against Elvis Alvarado to end the game.
J.T. Ginn of the Athletics struck out eight in 5 1/3 innings. He gave up three runs, seven hits and one walk.
Detroit left the bases loaded in the top of the seventh against Michael Kelly (4-2) and the missed opportunity was magnified when Thomas smacked the second pitch in the bottom of the inning from Skubal over the wall in left-center to bring the A’s within 3-2.
Darell Hernaiz reached on an infield single and Soderstrom followed with a double. McKinstry then booted a grounder by Brett Harris to load the bases.
Skubal struck out Zack Gelof and JJ Bleday before Langeliers came up and belted a 2-1 sinker 450 feet to left-center to empty the bases and give the A’s a 6-3 lead. It was Langeliers’ 11th homer of the month and 29th of the season.
In the eighth, Lawrence Butler reached on an infield single and fellow pinch hitter Kurtz followed with a two-run homer to left-center against Drew Sommers to boost the lead to five.
Torres jumped on the first pitch in the sixth from Ginn and sent it 417 feet over the wall in left-center to break a scoreless tie.
Carpenter and Riley Greene followed with singles to put runners on the corners before Greene moved to second on a wild pitch. Ginn retired Spencer Torkelson on an infield fly before being removed by manager Mark Kotsay.
Perez greeted Sean Newcomb with a two-run double into the right-center gap to make it 3-0.
The Athletics got on the board in the bottom of the sixth as Bleday doubled and made it safely to third on a throwing error by McKinstry. Jacob Wilson followed with a grounder to second to score Bleday.
–Field Level Media
