Sacramento A’s starter JT Ginn took a no hit bid into the ninth inning and lost it giving up two runs in a 2-1 loss to the Los Angeles Angels at Angels Stadium in Anaheim on Mon May 18, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Mauricio Segura

J.T. Ginn delivered the kind of start pitchers dream about and hitters hate to endure, carrying a no-hitter into the ninth inning before Adam Frazier and Zach Neto spoiled the night like kids who sneak into position to blow out someone else’s birthday candles, sending the Sacramento Athletics to a brutal 2-1 loss to the Angels Monday night.

For eight innings, Ginn was nearly untouchable. He struck out Zach Neto to open the first, retired Mike Trout twice on grounders to third, and kept Los Angeles from putting a hit on the board while the Green and Gold tried to squeeze out just enough offense to reward him. It was a stunning performance from a pitcher who entered the game already trending upward, with A’s starters riding their longest stretch of five-inning outings since 2021 and Ginn having posted much stronger numbers on the road than at home this season.

The early innings had the feel of a tug of war. Carlos Cortes opened the game with a walk, but Walbert Ureña quickly settled in, getting Shea Langeliers on a fly ball before Nick Kurtz and Brent Rooker struck out. The Angels’ right-hander matched Ginn zero for zero, helped by Nolan Schanuel’s leaping grab in the second and Jo Adell’s sliding catch in the fifth.

The A’s put runners on in the third when Cortes drew another walk and Langeliers singled, but Kurtz popped out to end it. In the fourth, Henry Bolte singled, Jeff McNeil reached on a fielder’s choice and an error, and Zack Gelof was hit by a pitch to load the bases, but Darell Hernaiz grounded into a force out to keep the game scoreless and the bench frustrated.

Ginn, meanwhile, kept dealing. Jorge Soler struck out twice in the first five innings, Josh Lowe and Logan O’Hoppe went down swinging in the third, and Schanuel struck out to end the fourth. Even when Yoán Moncada walked and stole second in the fifth,

Ginn answered by getting Lowe to ground back to the mound. In the sixth, Nick Kurtz stretched at first to preserve the no-hitter after Adam Frazier’s grounder, and Ginn finished the inning by getting Trout again. By the time he struck out Schanuel, Soler and Moncada in order in the seventh, the game had turned from tense to electric.

The A’s finally broke through in the ninth. Gelof singled to center, stole second, and Lawrence Butler, pinch-hitting for Hernaiz, delivered the biggest Sacramento swing of the night, lining a single to center to score Gelof for a 1-0 lead.

It was especially important considering Butler had been struggling badly, entering the game mired in a rough stretch and hitless as a pinch hitter this season. Cortes followed with his third walk, and Langeliers drew another to load the bases, but Kurtz grounded into a double play, leaving the margin painfully thin.

That mattered immediately. Ginn returned for the ninth with history still breathing, but Frazier opened the inning with a line-drive single to center, ending the no-hit bid. Jose Siri replaced him as a pinch-runner, and Neto followed with the swing that turned Ginn’s masterpiece into a heartbreak, driving a ball over the center-field wall for a two-run homer and a 2-1 Angels win. It was a cruel ending for Ginn, who deserved a better line than a loss attached to one late mistake.

Still, the night revealed plenty about this Athletics club. Kurtz doubled in the fifth to extend his on-base streak from 40 to 41 games, tying Eddie Joost’s 1949 mark for sixth longest in franchise history. Langeliers also kept reaching base, Cortes continued to show the patient bat that has made him one of the club’s steadiest hitters, and Bolte looked comfortable in center field only days after becoming one of the youngest players in Athletics history to start there in his major league debut. But baseball can be a wonderful letdown, and Ginn learned the nastiest version of that lesson. Eight innings of brilliance can disappear behind one ninth-inning swing.

Game 2 Tuesday will feature A’s Jacob Lopez ( 3-2 / 5.80 ERA / 30 K), against the Angels Reid Detmers ( 1-4 / 4.20 ERA / 53 K). The southpaw duel in Anaheim is scheduled to begin at 6:38pm.

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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