Los Angeles Angels Josh Lowe tries to break up a double play that sends the Sacramento A’s second baseman Jeff McNeil to step away to complete a double play at Angels Stadium in Anaheim on Fri May 22, 2026 (AP News photo)
By Mauricio Segura
The Sacramento Athletics came away with a 10 inning 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels to take three out of four from the Angels Thursday night. The A’s spent five innings trying to solve José Soriano while the Angels held a 2-0 lead built on one swing from Nolan Schanuel.
Mike Trout singled in the first, and Schanuel followed by sending a fly ball over the wall in right, giving Los Angeles an early advantage before the Green and Gold had even put a runner in scoring position.
For a while, that looked like it might be enough. The A’s struck out three times in the first, went down in order in the second and third, and had Carlos Cortes thrown out trying to stretch a fourth-inning single. It was the kind of start that makes a dugout feel like it is chewing on gravel.
Luis Severino, however, refused to let the game drift away. After Schanuel’s homer, the right-hander settled into one of his best rhythms of the season. He struck out Jose Siri and Sebastián Rivero in the second, then wiped out Adam Frazier, Zach Neto, and Trout in the third.
When Josh Lowe singled to begin the fifth, Severino got Siri to ground into a Zack Gelof-to-Jeff McNeil-to-Nick Kurtz double play, then struck out Rivero to end the inning. By the time his night was done, Severino had given the Athletics seven innings of two-run baseball with ten strikeouts and no free passes, a terrific answer after entering with three straight losses and a season-long issue with bases on balls.
The comeback began quietly, which fit the game just fine. Shea Langeliers opened the sixth-inning scoring chance with a double to left. Kurtz, who already had extended his reaching-base streak with a fourth-inning free pass, then lined a ground-ball single to center to score Langeliers and cut the deficit to 2-1. That streak, already tied for fourth longest in Athletics history entering the game, moved another step forward and continued a run that has placed Kurtz among the most dangerous on-base bats in the majors.
The seventh inning turned the game from survival mode into a real fight. Tyler Soderstrom singled, and Gelof replaced him at first on a force out before stealing second. McNeil moved Gelof to third with a groundout, and Darell Hernaiz delivered the tying hit, a line-drive single to left that scored Gelof. Hernaiz then stole second, showing the kind of pressure the A’s have needed during a stretch where tight games have become part of their regular diet.
The Athletics had chances to take control earlier than they did. In the eighth, Langeliers reached, Kurtz and Brent Rooker put two runners aboard, and a wild pitch moved both into scoring position before Soderstrom was intentionally issued first base. Gelof struck out, leaving the bases loaded. In the ninth, McNeil reached on Vaughn Grissom’s throwing error, Henry Bolte stole second as a pinch-runner, and Cortes reached, but Langeliers grounded out to keep the score tied.
The tenth inning finally tilted the game. Langeliers began at second, Kurtz was intentionally put aboard, and Rooker was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Soderstrom’s grounder forced Langeliers out at home, giving the Angels a brief breath of relief. Then came the night’s defining review. Gelof hit a grounder to short, and after the Athletics challenged the call, the ruling was overturned. Kurtz scored, the A’s had a 3-2 lead, and Gelof had turned a frustrating offensive night into the most important plate appearance of the game.
The Angels still had one more threat. Vaughn Grissom began the bottom of the tenth at second, and Jo Adell singled to center, putting runners at the corners with nobody out. Mark Leiter Jr. had no room for a mistake, but he found his escape route the hard way. He struck out Lowe, then got Jorge Soler to ground into a game-ending double play started by Gelof at third and finished through Hernaiz and Kurtz. It was a perfect ending for an A’s team that leaned on Severino’s grit, Kurtz’s steady bat, Hernaiz’s timely swing, Gelof’s legs and glove, and a bullpen that held the final three innings together.
The result was a 3-2 extra-inning win for the Athletics, their third victory of this four-game series against the Angels and another example of why this club has stayed on top of the AL West. They did not overpower Los Angeles. They outlasted them, one grind-it-out at-bat, one stolen base, one review, and one huge double play at a time. The final out came just before the 9:35pm start time for Disneyland’s fireworks down the street, Hakuna Matata!
The A’s will board the team bus Thursday night and head a couple of hours south to San Diego where they will play the Padres Friday for a three-game set. Jefferey Springs ( 3-4 / 3.93 ERA / 47 K) will take the mound for Sacramento facing off against Walker Buehler (3-2 / 5.01 ERA / 37 K) at 6:40pm.
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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