Oakland Athletics’ JJ Bleday, left, congratulates Zack Gelof for a solo home run off Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Chris Flexen during the second inning at Coors Field in Denver on Sat Jul 29, 2023 (AP News photo)

A’s Pepper Rockies 11-3

By Barbara Mason

The Oakland A’s (30-76) offense had flourished in game one but could they repeat that in game two? They did with a 11-3 whipping on the Colorado Rockies (40-64) at Coors Field in Denver Sunday.

The A’s got an early run in the first inning taking a 1-0 lead. Seth Brown sacrificed and Zach Gelof scored.

Oakland scored five runs in the second inning to take a 6-0 lead. Jace Peterson and Tyler Soderstrom both scored. The A’s then hit back to back home runs. Gelof hit a solo shot and Brent Rooker had a two run homer.

The Rockies got on the board in the second inning with a single run, Elias Diaz scored off a Michael Toglia single.

Colorado scored another run in the third inning trying to sneak back into this game. C.J. Cron singled bringing Ryan McMahon home. Oakland still had a nice lead 6-2.

Going into the sixth inning. The A’s. went on another crazy scoring sequence. They tacked on four more runs in the inning taking a 10-2 lead. Gelof, Brown, JJ Bleday and Ramon Laureano all crossed home plate. The A’s would add another run in the seventh inning enjoying a comfortable lead 11-2.

The Rockies would hit a homer in the eighth inning off the bat of Randal Grichuk. Trailing 11-3, the Rockies had a lot of work to do and little time to do it. Colorado had 12 hits in the game but left a lot of runners stranded. In contrast, Oakland had 13 hits and brought most of those base runners home.

Going into the ninth inning the A’s were three outs away from their 30th win of the season.

Paul Blackburn had a nice showing on the mound going six innings allowing nine hits and two runs in the win. The A’s pitching staff had no walks in this game; it was a solid game for them.

A’s post game notes: Friday night the A’s took a 7-1 lead over the Colorado Rockies going into the eighth inning. Colorado got a mini rally going scoring three runs in the eighth but Oakland was able to hold on winning the game 8-5. The A’s had 14 hits in that game and Saturday night got a second win in Colorado.

Oakland will be going for the sweep in Sunday’s game three. Luis Medina (3-7 ERA 5.50) will take the mound for Oakland and for the Rockies Ty Blach (0-0 ERA 5.51) will get the nod. First pitch is scheduled for 12:10 PM.