Philadelphia Phillies Edmundo Sosa is out at second base as Sacramento A’s second baseman Jeff McNeil tries to complete the double play in the bottom of the sixth inning at Citizens Bank Ballpark in Philadelphia on Wed May 6, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Mauricio Segura

Sacramento A’s couldn’t hold off the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday night at Citizens Bank in Philadelphia as the Phillies down 3-2 rallied in the eighth inning scoring four runs to come away with a 6-3 win.

For seven innings, the Athletics looked like they would rinse away the sour taste of Tuesday’s 9-1 thumping and remind everyone why they were still sitting on top of the American League West. They entered Wednesday night 18-17, still holding a season-high tying two-game lead in the division despite losing three of their previous four, and they had spent the last ten days alone in first place.

That made this game feel like more than a random early-May interleague stop. It felt like a test of whether the Green and Gold could steady themselves and continue the momentum they ran with in April.

For most of the night, they did. Jeffrey Springs gave the A’s exactly the kind of road start they needed, working around early traffic while keeping Philadelphia’s lineup from landing the big punch. Kyle Schwarber doubled in the first, and the Phillies put two aboard in the second, but Springs kept the scoreboard clean. He got Alec Bohm to fly out and Felix Reyes to bounce into a forceout, then followed with a tidy third inning. For a pitcher who had allowed six home runs over his previous three starts after giving up none in his first four, this was a needed return to control.

The A’s scratched first in the third. Lawrence Butler opened the inning with a walk, moved to second on Nick Kurtz’s groundout, and scored when Jacob Wilson served a fly-ball single to right. Wilson then stole second, continuing to look like one of the steadiest bats in the order. His hit also extended his hitting streak to 10 games, another small but meaningful sign that his early-season wobble has turned into a real rhythm.

Springs kept protecting the 1-0 lead, and he even flashed some craft in the fourth by picking off J.T. Realmuto after Realmuto’s second single of the game. In the fifth, the A’s added another run with two outs. Zack Gelof lined a double to left, and Kurtz followed by ripping a sharp single to right, bringing Gelof home for a 2-0 lead. Kurtz was not done either.

Entering the night with the longest reaching-base streak in the majors this season, he pushed it to 30 games by reaching multiple times. That tied him with Matt Chapman’s 30-game run from 2018, the longest such streak by an Athletic in recent memory.

Philadelphia finally cracked Springs in the fifth. Brandon Marsh opened the inning with a triple to center and scored on Reyes’ groundout, cutting the A’s lead to 2-1. Springs still finished the frame by getting Schwarber called out on strikes after a confirmed ABS challenge, keeping the momentum from fully turning.

Then Tyler Soderstrom gave the A’s a little breathing room in the sixth. He jumped on Zack Wheeler and lifted a solo homer to left, his fifth of the season, pushing the lead to 3-1. At that point, the game had a clean shape for Sacramento. Springs was battling, the offense had produced just enough, and the bullpen had a two-run lead to guard.

But this is when baseball proved that baseball is never really predictable or reliable, and one can never let his guard down or get comfortable they have the game in the bag.

The Phils Adolis García trimmed the A’s lead to 3-2 with a solo homer to center in the bottom of the sixth, and Springs exited after Edmundo Sosa followed with a single. Justin Sterner escaped the inning, and Jack Perkins delivered a spotless seventh with two strikeouts, including Bryson Stott on an overturned ABS challenge. The A’s still led by one heading into the eighth.

Then the whole thing unraveled.

Schwarber walked to open the eighth, and Bryce Harper reached on a fielder’s choice that became more dangerous when Jeff McNeil’s throwing error allowed Schwarber to move up. García singled to load the bases with nobody out, and Sosa punished the mistake with a ground-ball single to center that scored Schwarber and Harper, flipping the game to 4-3 Phillies.

Realmuto lined out, but Marsh followed with another single to center to score García. Stott singled to reload the bases, and Justin Crawford’s groundout brought home Sosa. In one messy, grinding inning, Philadelphia turned a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 lead.

The A’s made one last push in the ninth against Brad Keller. McNeil singled, Butler walked, and Kurtz drew another walk to load the bases with two outs. Darell Hernaiz pinch-ran for Kurtz, bringing Wilson to the plate as the tying run. But Wilson grounded softly back to Keller, ending the game and leaving the A’s with a 6-3 loss that felt more frustrating than lopsided.

This was not a lifeless defeat. Springs competed. Soderstrom homered. Wilson and Kurtz kept important streaks alive. But the bullpen’s recent danger signs showed up again, and one ugly eighth inning swallowed seven innings of mostly pristine baseball. For a first-place team trying to prove May will not become a repeat of old collapses, this was the kind of loss that does not need drama attached to it. It already came with enough sting.

Starting pitchers for Thursday’s night: For Sacramento RHP JT Ginn (0-1 ERA 4.30) for Philadelphia RHP Andrew Painter (1-3 ERA 5.28) first pitch 3:40pm PDT.

Costa Rican-born Mauricio Segura has been covering sports in the Bay Area since 2001 for a variety of magazines and newspapers, as well as his own publication, Golden Bay Times.

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