Sacramento A’s Denzel Clarke (1) rounds third base scoring a run in the top of the second inning against the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park in Atlanta on Tue Mar 31, 2026 (AP News photo)
Finally a Pulse in Atlanta A’s break through for season’s first win 5-2 at Truist Park
By Mauricio Segura
The Sacramento A’s finally gave their early season a heartbeat Tuesday night at Atlanta’s Truist Park. After opening the year with four straight losses and carrying the weight of a winless start into Atlanta, the green and gold answered with a crisp 5-2 victory over the Atlanta Braves.
Unlike the previous four games, the A’s showed patience and timely hitting, steadier pitching, and just enough late-game authority to keep the door shut. It was not flawless baseball, they still collected strikeouts like a kid collects rookie cards, but this time the Athletics made their best swings count and backed them with clean defense when it mattered most.
Atlanta landed the first punch in the opening inning when Drake Baldwin drove a solo home run to center, giving the Braves a quick 1-0 lead and A’s fans an already familiar lump in their throats. For a team that had already been shut out the night before and had looked stuck in mud for much of the opening road trip, that could have been the start of another long evening. Instead, the Athletics pushed back in the second with their best inning of the young season.
Brent Rooker opened with a single, and although the Braves turned a double play behind José Suarez, the inning did not die there. Max Muncy worked a walk, moved to second on a balk, and scored when Andy Ibáñez lined a single to left.
That was the crack in the wall. Lawrence Butler and Denzel Clarke followed with walks, and then Jacob Wilson ripped a ground-rule double down the left-field line to bring home Ibáñez and Butler. Just like that, the Athletics had turned a one-run deficit into a 3-1 lead, and for the first time in several days, they looked like a club playing with desire.
Ibáñez was right in the middle of it all, and his night kept getting better. In the fourth inning, Muncy drilled a sharp double to left and came home when Ibáñez punched another single into left field. It was simple 101 baseball, but often times, that’s the type that wins most games. Ibáñez finished with two hits and two RBI, and both swings came at moments when the Athletics badly needed someone to settle the game down.
Then came Langeliers, who has been swinging like he showed up to March without ever putting his bat down all winter. After entering the night with three home runs in the season’s first four games, the Athletics catcher added another in the fifth, launching a solo shot to left that stretched the lead to 5-1. His home run gave the Athletics breathing room, and against a Braves happy bat lineup, that extra cushion mattered.
Aaron Civale, making his first start for the Athletics, deserved a large share of the credit. Aside from Baldwin’s first-inning homer, he kept Atlanta from stacking anything dangerous together for most of his five innings. He allowed four hits, walked one, struck out three, and gave up just two runs. The second Braves run came in the fifth after singles by Dominic Smith and Mauricio Dubón, a wild pitch, and Ronald Acuña Jr.’s sacrifice fly. Even then, Civale avoided the big inning and kept the game from tilting back toward Atlanta.
From there, the bullpen did the job. Hogan Harris worked around two walks in the sixth. Justin Sterner handled trouble in the seventh and struck out Acuña and Matt Olson in a tense stretch that felt bigger than the inning number suggested. Scott Barlow breezed through the eighth. Mark Leiter Jr. gave up a pair of singles in the ninth, which made things slightly more uncomfortable than the Athletics would have preferred, but he got Acuña to strike out and Baldwin to pop out, ending the game with the tying run nowhere close to the plate.
Despite the much needed win, the Athletics still struck out 11 times. Nick Kurtz fanned three times, Rooker struck out three times, and the lineup also hit into two double plays. There is still work to do, plain and simple. But Tuesday night was a reminder that a season does not ask for perfection, just persistence and grit that will hopefully carry on over.
The A’s take on Atlanta for Game 3 of the series Wednesday at 9:15am PDT. Starting pitcher for Sacramento RHP Luis Severino (0-0 ERA 3.60) for Atlanta LHP Chris Sale (1-0 ERA 0.00).
Costa Rican-born Mauricio Segura has covered sports in the Bay Area since 2001 for various magazines and newspapers, as well as his own publication, The Golden Bay Times. 2026 marks his 15th season covering Athletics baseball.
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