Athletics' offense clicks, snaps nine-game losing streak in win over Red Sox
The "A's Cast" crew breaks down the turning point in the Athletics' 7-3 win against the Boston Red Sox on Saturday at Fenway Park.
Athletics' offense clicks, snaps nine-game losing streak in win over Red Sox originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
Oh, so good.
Let's get to the Toyota Turning Point.
Let's talk some offense.
We haven't been able to do this in a long, long time, and we're taking you to the fifth inning.
And here we are, the Athletics are down.
A hit-by-pitch, Aleka Williams on first, and then there's Jacob Wilson.
Yes, indeed.
I mean, you know, guys that have great bat-to-ball skills, not only are they able to extend at-bats and reduce the strikeouts, they are bad ball hitters.
When you are just a kind of guy that just keeps it in play, you can find ways to find holes, and that's what he did.
How many people said, "Why didn't they trade Jonah Heim?
We need him in the lineup"?
For this reason, not only has he done a great job of filling in with catching a, or receiving from a pitching staff that he didn't know nothing about, but just the clutch hits that he's come up.
Seem like every time he comes up with one of those things, it is a game-deciding swing.
And man, he's been as huge as any acquisition that we've had, and there has been some good ones.
You know, we were talking about when he was acquired from Atlanta, bringing him back to the organization, how it was great that Shea could take days off.
He could basically DH, get him off his feet, just get those four at-bats, and how big it was.
And of course, the huge home run against Milwaukee in Vegas.
Another big home run against the Angels back home in West Sacramento.
Just these big home runs, two outs, bottom of the ninth, two run shots to tie it.
But then all of a sudden when Shea goes down, the fact that you need a primary catcher, it's like, thank God, the front office made that trade to get him.
And I guarantee you, going about that acquisition, it was so much so that you would have a guy that could, you know, spell Shea, because he's been a iron man.
You didn't expect him to miss games.
And for Heim to be able to step in and become a everyday regular, and produce on both sides, I mean, that just does not happen.
So once he brought a lot of attention like he did and what he was capable of doing, that's why all those teams came a-calling and wanna know if he was available.
But there was no way possible that the Green and Gold could afford to let this guy get away.
All right, enough with the offense.
The story of the game, no question, River Rock Daily Jackpot, Gage Jump.
You know, last start, it was, oh, it was two miles an hour off of his fastball.
Well, he had the old number one today.
He had everything today.
A career high 11 strikeouts.
Last pitch was 99 miles an hour.
But this is the kid that you go, "You know what?
What he could be in this rotation, the future, wow, he was impressive."
And this is playing on the big stage against the hottest team in baseball.
And this is exactly what you wanted to see.
What I was impressed about today is the way that he distributed his repertoire.
He pitched backwards.
He used to change up a lot more as we wanted to see in the breaking ball, getting give o- get over strikes on first pitches, stealing strikes in the zone, freezing hitters, and challenge them.
And the moment in the game for me is when Mark Kotsay walked- Yes out there to talk to him.
Yes.
I would love to know what that conversation was all about, 'cause he beelined and went right back to the dugout, and Gage went to work.
Fastball had more life, more jump and everything, and I have not seen him that animated since he's been here.
Yeah.
But man, there was a whole lot of excitement and joy walking off the field and doing what he was able to do, because you been asking for that all year long.
He's got some dude in him, right?
He can be the dude, and when you're looking at your manager and you're saying, "Get back in the dugout.
We've lost nine in a row.
This game is on me."
And to be a young kid that does that, and did you see after he got out of that sixth inning, him in the dugout all fired up with his teammates?
That's a winner right there.
This kid's a winner.
Yeah.
Coming up next, you're gonna hear from the manager.
Mark Kotsay's gotta b- be feeling pretty good right here on A's Cast.
