Jacob Wilson homered during a three-hit outing, Tyler Soderstrom and Carlos Cortes also went deep and the Athletics broke a 10-game slide with a 15-1 beatdown of the Washington Nationals on Saturday night at West Sacramento, Calif.
J.T. Ginn took a no-hitter into the seventh inning for the Athletics, who bounced back from a 23-4 loss in Friday’s opener of the three-game set.
Shea Langeliers drove in three runs and Wilson, Soderstrom, Cortes, Joshua Kuroda-Grauer and Jeff McNeil each drove in two for the Athletics, who lost their previous four games by a cumulative score of 47-6. McNeil had three hits.
Keibert Ruiz had two of the Nationals’ four hits as the club lost for the seventh time in its past 10 games. Washington received a sacrifice fly in the ninth from Jorbit Vivas to score at least once for the 69th straight game.
Ginn (8-6) reached 6 1/3 no-hit innings after second baseman Donovan Walton made a diving stop of CJ Abrams’ rocket-like grounder to open the seventh.
Ginn got ahead with a strike on Ruiz before the Washington catcher lined a clean single to center to break up the no-hitter. Athletics manager Mark Kotsay then quickly pulled Ginn after just 82 pitches. He struck out seven and walked three.
Washington’s Zack Littell (7-7) was torched for eight runs and eight hits over six innings. He struck out four, walked four and served up two homers to raise his season count to 25 allowed.
One night after Washington matched the second-best scoring output in franchise history, the script was revised in favor of the A’s, who came out of the gates fast with five runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Wilson led off by hitting the first pitch from Littell over the wall in left. Soderstrom followed with a single and scored on a one-out double by Cortes. Kuroda-Grauer added a run-scoring double to make it 3-0. Walton walked before Jonah Heim delivered a run-scoring single. Lawrence Butler’s fielder’s choice plated the final run of the inning.
The Athletics loaded the bases with one out in the second and added on when Kuroda-Grauer hustled to first to avoid hitting into a double play as Wilson scored to make it 6-0.
In the bottom of the sixth, McNeil reached on a one-out infield hit. Soderstrom came up with two outs and belted a homer to right-center to create an eight-run margin.
Cortes ripped a homer to left off Max Kranick to lead off the seventh to make it 9-0. McNeil and Wilson added RBI singles later.
The bases were loaded later in the inning when Langeliers hit a deep drive to right. James Wood was at the wall but seemed to have trouble tracking the downward flight and the ball landed to his right for a double as the bases cleared to make it 14-0.
The 6-foot-6 Wood reached high above the short wall in right in the eighth to rob Lawrence Butler of a three-run blast. McNeill had an RBI single later in the inning.
