Zack Gelof (20) of the Sacramento A’s takes a 24 game hitting streak into Oracle Park in San Francisco Tue Jun 23, 2026 against the San Francisco Giants (AP file photo)

By Mauricio Segura

WEST SACRAMENTO–The Sacramento A’s built a four-run lead before fans got mustard on their hot dogs, but an early effort in Athletics baseball is never something to find comfort in. What began as a promising day for the Green and Gold turned into a 9-7 loss, as the Los Angeles Angels used three home runs, including Zach Neto’s go-ahead shot in the ninth, to take the final two games of the series and send Sacramento two games under .500.

The A’s wasted no time putting Reid Detmers in trouble. Zack Gelof opened the bottom of the first with a single to left, Nick Kurtz and Jacob Wilson both reached base, and Tyler Soderstrom forced in the first run. Jonah Heim followed with a sacrifice fly to center, bringing in Kurtz for a 2-0 lead. Joey Meneses then lined an RBI single to left, scoring Wilson and picking up his first Major League RBI since July 1, 2024, when he was with Washington. Henry Bolte capped the inning with a ground-ball single to right, scoring Soderstrom and giving the Athletics a 4-0 lead.

It looked like the A’s had a chance to stay on top. Instead, Los Angeles answered in the second. Nolan Schanuel singled, Denzer Guzman followed with another single, and Donovan Walton turned a 2-0 pitch from Jack Perkins into a three-run homer to right. Just like that, Sacramento’s cushion was down to 4-3. Walton has now recorded an extra-base hit in six straight games, the longest active streak in the Majors and tied for the longest by any player this season.

Perkins recovered enough to keep the A’s ahead. He struck out a career-high eight batters over five innings on 78 pitches, giving the A’s some badly needed swing-and-miss. But the Angels kept making him work. In the fifth, Jose Siri singled, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch, then scored on another wild pitch to make it 5-4. Perkins finished with four earned runs allowed on four hits and two walks, and he has allowed at least three earned runs and one home run in each of his four starts this season.

The A’s had pushed their lead to 5-3 in the fourth when Gelof doubled and Kurtz singled him home, with Kurtz moving to second on Jo Adell’s fielding error. Kurtz kept his big afternoon going in the seventh. After Gelof reached on Denzer Guzman’s error, Kurtz drove a Brent Suter pitch to center for a two-run homer, stretching the Athletics’ lead to 7-4. Kurtz finished 2-for-4 with a homer, a walk, three RBIs and two runs. He also reached base safely for the 22nd straight game and tied Bob Johnson for the most home runs through the first two years of an A’s career with 55.

That seventh-inning homer should have given the A’s enough room to finish the job. It did not. Hogan Harris started the eighth by hitting pinch-hitter Vaughn Grissom. Schanuel singled him to third, and Guzman tied the game with a three-run homer to center.

Guzman finished 2-for-3 with a homer, a walk, three RBIs and two runs, and he has now homered in three straight games, the longest streak of his career. Heim helped stop the inning from getting worse by throwing out Christian Moore trying to steal second, and Elvis Alvarado struck out Oswald Peraza after a challenge confirmed the call.

The ninth inning gave the Angels their final push. Siri singled up the middle with one out, and Neto followed by sending an 0-1 pitch from Alvarado over the wall in left. The two-run homer, Neto’s 17th of the season, gave Los Angeles its first lead of the game at 9-7. Sam Bachman then retired Gelof, Kurtz and Wilson in order in the bottom half, earning his first save.

The Angels finished with ten hits and three homers. They have now hit 22 home runs across 11 games at the Athletics’ current home park, the most by any visiting team. The A’s had seven hits, five walks and plenty of early traffic, but after Kurtz’s seventh-inning blast, their final six batters were retired. It was a game the Athletics had in their hands more than once, only to watch the Angels’ bats laugh and say, “Not today!”.

Next up, the Athletics head down I-80 for a matchup against the San Francisco Giants, with Aaron Civale (5-3, 4.91 ERA, 41 K) for Sacramento set to face San Francisco’s Robbie Ray (5-6, 4.07 ERA, 74 K) at 6:45 p.m. Pacific, giving the Green and Gold a quick chance to trade frustration for a rivalry win.

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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