Sacramento A’s shortstop Jacob Wilson makes a throw to first base against the Baltimore Orioles in the bottom of the first inning at Camden Yards in Baltimore Orioles on Fri May 8, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Mauricio Segura

For four innings Friday night at Camden Yards, the Sacramento Athletics looked stuck in a familiar baseball maze. Kyle Bradish was carving through the lineup, the Orioles had just enough traffic to keep things tense, and Pete Alonso’s fourth-inning solo shot had Baltimore in front. Then the fifth inning arrived, and the Green and Gold found the escape door.

The Athletics beat the Orioles 4-3 in the opener of the series, squeezing out a tough road win that mixed a sudden offensive burst, sharp defense, and one last ninth-inning sweat bath. It was not pretty in the way a blowout is pretty. It was prettier than that. It was a grind, the kind of game that tests whether a first-place team can hold its nerve when the whole thing starts wobbling late.

Jacob Lopez gave the A’s exactly what they needed after a stretch in which the pitching staff had been searching for steadier footing. He worked 5.1 innings, allowed just three hits and two runs, walked two and struck out five. Baltimore’s best early chance came in the first when Gunnar Henderson walked and Adley Rutschman singled him to third with one out, but Lopez escaped by getting Alonso to pop out and Tyler O’Neill to ground out. After that, he settled into a clean rhythm, retiring the side in order in the second and third.

The only real dents against Lopez came from Baltimore’s big bats. Alonso opened the scoring in the fourth with his eighth homer, a line drive to right center that gave the Orioles a 1-0 lead. Rutschman later made it a one-run game in the sixth with his fifth homer, a fly ball to center that cut the Athletics’ lead to 3-2 and ended Lopez’s night. Still, for a pitcher who entered the evening trying to turn a rough May page, this was a composed and useful start.

The A’s offense finally broke through in the fifth, and it started with Jacob Wilson doing what Jacob Wilson keeps doing. Wilson singled to first, Lawrence Butler lined a single to left, and Zack Gelof slapped a ground-ball single through the left side to score Wilson and tie the game. Jeff McNeil then moved both runners with a groundout, setting up Nick Kurtz for the swing that changed the night.

Kurtz, whose ability to reach base has turned into one of the club’s most reliable daily features, ripped a ground-ball triple to right. Butler and Gelof scored, and suddenly the A’s led 3-1. Kurtz also singled earlier, extending a reaching-base streak that was already the longest in the majors this season entering the game. For a young hitter with patience, power, and a knack for making pitchers work, this was another reminder that his at-bats rarely feel empty.

Wilson added the eventual winning run in the eighth. After Shea Langeliers singled and Tyler Soderstrom reached on a forceout, Brent Rooker lined a sharp single to left. Carlos Cortes flew out, but Wilson followed by grounding a single to right, scoring Soderstrom for a 4-2 lead. That hit mattered even more later, and it also fit Wilson’s larger season. He entered the night with an 11-game hitting streak and a 76-game errorless streak at shortstop, the longest by a shortstop in Athletics history.

The bullpen made the lead hold, but not without some late drama. Justin Sterner finished the sixth cleanly after Rutschman’s homer. Scott Barlow handled the seventh with three ground-ball outs and a strikeout mixed in. Joel Kuhnel breezed through the eighth on a foul popout and two grounders. That was important for a bullpen that had taken its share of punishment recently.

Then came the ninth, because baseball likes to keep us writers from filing our recap early. Jack Perkins walked Rutschman, struck out Alonso, then struck out pinch-hitter Dylan Beavers. Rutschman moved to second on defensive indifference, and Samuel Basallo grounded a single to center to score him, trimming the lead to 4-3. Hogan Harris entered with the tying run aboard, walked Leody Taveras, and then ended the game by striking out Jeremiah Jackson on a foul tip.

Game 2 Saturday will feature Aaron Civale ( 3-1 / 2.95 ERA / 27 K) on the mound for Sacramento vs Baltimore’s Shane Baz ( 1-3 / 4.99 ERA / 33 K). First pitch set for 1:05pm Pacific.

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.