Photo credit: @SportingGreenSF

By: Matthew Harrington

OAKLAND–Just think where the Oakland Athletics might be if they’d called Ramon Laureano up sooner. Maybe a 3.5 game division deficit is actually a division lead at this time. The 24 year old rookie has won games for the A’s with his glove, his arm, his baserunning and his bat since getting the call August 3rd and Friday night was no different.

The speedy center fielder became the first Athletic to have two multi-homer games in his first thirty big league appearances, going deep twice in the A’s 8-4 win over the Rangers at the Coliseum on Friday night. He joins the Bash Brothers, Mark McGwire and Jose Canseco as the only players in A’s history to accomplish the feat in the first 50 games of their careers.

The A’s needed the win with the Astros rallying past the Red Sox and the New York Yankees dispatching of the team directly below the A’s in the Wild Card standings. A loss would have pushed Oakland 4 1/2 games back of each team. The A’s pounced on Rangers starter Yovani Gallardo, plating five runs of him in just 4 1/3 innings.

Laureano put the Rangers on the ropes in his first at bat of the game, working his way into the leadoff spot after earning manager Bob Melvin’s trust over a first cup of coffee that includes a .309 batting average in 81 at-bats. Laureano rewarded his manager with a solo shot to center field, his 4th homer of the year already, to give the A’s a 1-0 lead just one batter into their licks at the dish.

Marcus Semien hit his 12th long ball of the season with a runner on in the bottom of the 2nd inning, then the rally continued till Matt Chapman’s two-run single made it 5-0 A’s.

Joey Gallo did what he does best, crushing two-run homer off Chris Bassitt in the top of the 4th. Bassitt, the second man out of the pen after Liam Hendriks served as “opener” once again, allowed three runs over his three innings of work.

Yusmeiro Petit was credited with the win for his work pitching the fifth and sixth innings despite the A’s already being up 5-2. He got some major run support when Laureano blasted another solo shot, this time off reliever Adrian Sampson. Sampson would get tagged for another pair after an error and three straight singles put Oakland up 8-3.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the A’s. Fernando Rodney labored for his appearance in the seventh inning. He gave up one run, his fourth of September in just 2 2/3 innings and it could have been much worse. Ronald Guzman hit a ball that appeared to hit the top of the wall in right, but was ruled a double and scored only one run. Rodney walked the bases loaded with two outs, but Ryan Buchter came in and got the deep fly out from Rougned Odor to escape the big inning.

Jeurys Familia also struggled in his inning of work after getting one out, but giving up a hit to Nomar Mazara, a walk to Adrian Beltre and an RBI double to  Gallo to pull Texas within four at 8-4. He’d get the final to outs and turn the game over to the closer Blake Treinen. Treinen, a dark horse Cy Young candidate, finished off the ninth in his usual dominant fashion to give the A’s the final 8-4 lead.

The A’s and Rangers will continue their series with game two on Saturday afternoon at 1:05 pm PDT.

The A’s will send one of their few true starters to the hill, Edwin Jackson, a journeyman with a 5-3 record and 2.91 ERA. He’s locked in a battle with Mike Fiers to determine who will pitch in the one-game playoff come October if needed. He’ll be opposed by Yohander Mendez, a southpaw with a 1-1 record and 5.59 ERA.