Baltimore Orioles first baseman Coby Mayo fields a Sacramento A’s grounder in the bottom of the first inning at Sutter Health Field in West Sacramento on Sun Aug 30, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Mauricio Segura

WEST SACRAMENTO–Gunnar Henderson needed only four at-bats to turn a promising Sacramento Athletics Sunday afternoon into a frustrating finish. The Baltimore shortstop went 4-for-4 with two home runs, a triple and five RBI, powering the Orioles past the A’s 8-5 and finishing a three-game sweep.

Henderson put Baltimore ahead first with a solo homer, but the Athletics answered immediately. Henry Bolte singled, Zack Gelof drew a walk and Lawrence Butler ripped a two-run double to bring both runners home. Butler’s hit pushed his hitting streak to eight games, continuing a stretch in which he had been one of Sacramento’s hottest bats. He had been batting .354 with five homers and 13 RBI over his previous 18 games, while Bolte had hit .317 during August and ranked among the major-league rookie leaders in hits.

The A’s kept stacking hits against former Athletics starter Chris Bassitt. Brian Serven singled and later scored on Jeff McNeil’s RBI double. Tommy White doubled, and Serven followed with a two-run homer to right-center, stretching the lead to 5-1. It was an especially productive swing for a catcher who had made the most of his chances with men aboard; before the game, Serven was batting .400 with runners in scoring position, and all four of his previous home runs had come with runners on base.

Then Henderson and Coby Mayo changed the game in a hurry.

Pete Alonso and Henderson opened Baltimore’s fourth-inning rally with singles, and Mayo followed with a three-run homer to left-center that cut the A’s advantage to 5-4. One inning later, Blaze Alexander singled, Alonso drew a walk and Henderson sent a three-run homer to right field for a 7-5 Orioles lead. Jeffrey Springs was removed after that swing, ending his outing at 4 2/3 innings with six hits, seven runs, one walk and six strikeouts.

The loss dropped Springs to 3-13 and extended his personal losing streak to 13 games. He had already been carrying one of the roughest stretches in Athletics history, with 30 home runs allowed over his previous 20 starts and a 12-game losing streak that was tied for sixth-longest in franchise history before this outing. His day also followed a season-long problem for Sacramento pitching: the A’s had allowed a major-league-high 205 homers before the game.

Once Baltimore moved ahead, the Athletics never found another run. Butler drew a leadoff walk in the fifth, but Donovan Walton grounded into a double play. Alika Williams singled with two outs in the sixth and was stranded. Anthony Nunez, Josh Walker and Yennier Cano handled the final outs for Baltimore, with Cano retiring Jonah Heim, Bolte and McNeil in order in the ninth.

Henderson was not finished after the two homers. Pete Alonso was hit by a pitch in the eighth and replaced by Jackson Holliday, and Henderson drove Holliday home with a triple to center for the final run. Henderson also had his fingerprints on the defensive side, fielding Butler’s bases-loaded grounder to end an Athletics threat and helping turn a double play later in the game.

Sacramento finished with nine hits but only five runs, while Baltimore scored eight times on seven hits. Serven went 2-for-4 with two RBI, Bolte had two hits, Butler drove in two and McNeil supplied an RBI double.

The A’s closed the month at 8-19 after beginning the day with the lowest winning percentage in the majors for August, and the defeat dropped them to 25-44 at home. Baltimore improved to 68-69 and moved within one game of the final American League wild-card spot.

The A’s now head to Texas, where left-hander Gage Jump (6-8, 4.69 ERA, 97 K) gets the opener against Jacob deGrom (9-9, 4.21 ERA, 159 K), with first pitch set for 5:05 p.m. 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.