Sacramento A’s Jeff McNeil (with bling) is congratulated by a dugout full of teammates after hitting a home run in the ninth inning against the Los Angeles Angels at the Big A in Anaheim on Wed May 20, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Maurcio Segura

The Sacramento Athletics did not ease into this one. They grabbed an early lead, gave it back, clawed through the middle innings, and finally stole the night with the kind of road win that keeps a first-place team focused and the rest of the AL West glued to the scoreboard. By the time Hogan Harris got Jorge Soler to ground out with the bases loaded in the 10th, the Green and Gold had escaped with a 6-5 win that had a little bit of everything: early offense, three Los Angeles Angels homers, replay drama, late nerves, and Jeff McNeil turning a one-run deficit into a fresh fight with one swing.

The A’s jumped ahead immediately after Shea Langeliers was hit by a pitch, Nick Kurtz drew a walk, and Brent Rooker loaded the bases with a ground-ball single that glanced off Jack Kochanowicz. Tyler Soderstrom followed with a two-run single to center, scoring Langeliers and Kurtz for a 2-0 lead. That advantage lasted about as long as a paper napkin in a wind tunnel. Mike Trout walked in the bottom half, and Soler tied it with a two-run blast to left-center.

The second inning only raised the volume. Henry Bolte walked, stole second, and scored when Carlos Cortes ripped a liner to left that turned into extra trouble after Josh Lowe’s fielding error. But the Angels answered with Jo Adell’s solo homer and Lowe’s two-run shot, turning a 3-2 Athletics lead into a 5-3 hole. Aaron Civale, who entered with strong recent numbers and had allowed only three runs over his previous four starts, was tagged for three home runs and five runs through five innings.

From there, the game tightened. Shea Langeliers helped kill an Angels threat in the fourth when the Athletics successfully challenged a play at third, with Langeliers picking off Oswald Peraza on a throw to Zack Gelof. Luis Medina then gave the A’s a key bridge, working two scoreless innings and keeping the deficit manageable. That mattered because the Athletics’ offense, quiet from the third through sixth, found a spark in the seventh. Darell Hernaiz and Cortes were both hit by pitches, and Kurtz lined a two-out single to center that scored Hernaiz, though Cortes was thrown out trying for third.

Kurtz’s night also pushed his reaching-base streak from 42 games to 43, adding another line to a run that already had him near some big names in Athletics history. His walk in the first kept the streak alive, and his seventh-inning hit made it louder. McNeil then supplied the swing the A’s badly needed in the ninth, driving Kirby Yates’ pitch over the right-field wall to tie the game at 5-5. For a player who entered with just one homer and all of his RBI against right-handed pitching, it was perfect timing, the kind of swing that makes the bench feel ten degrees warmer.

Scott Barlow worked around a hit batter in the ninth, aided by another overturned call when Gelof and McNeil combined on a force at second. In the 10th, with Kurtz placed at second, Soderstrom delivered again. His fly-ball single to left scored Kurtz, and another error by Lowe pushed Soderstrom to third. The A’s could not add on, but Harris protected the 6-5 lead with a tightrope act. He struck out Lowe on a missed bunt, got Zach Neto to move the runner to third on a soft groundout, intentionally walked Trout, then walked Nolan Schanuel to load the bases. With Soler at the plate and the Angels one swing from flipping the ending, Harris got the grounder to McNeil, and the Athletics finally exhaled.

The series concludes Thursday with Luis Severino (2-5 / 4.45 ERA / 54 K) taking the mound for Sacramento against Anaheim’s Jose Soriano (6-3 / 2.41 ERA / 67 K). First pitch from the Big A scheduled for 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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⚡Craft cocktails? Check.
🔥Game-day bites? Oh yeah.
🏟️Steps from Golden 1 Center? You bet.

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