A’s club three homers to beat first-place Toronto. Club heads upbeat into All-Star break
Ninety-eight games are enough to get a sense of where the A’s stand heading into the All-Star break.
They are a flawed, work-in-progress club, offering up a taste of Major League Baseball in West Sacramento at Sutter Health Park, but the A’s are also a young bunch dripping of power, potential and optimism.
The A’s capped the first-half of the season at 41-57 after Sunday’s 6-3 victory over the first-place-in-the-American-League-East Toronto Blue Jays in front of an announced crowd of 8,884. The A’s were fueled by two-run homers — by catcher Austin Wynns for a 2-0 lead in the second inning, Tyler Soderstrom for a 4-0 lead in the third and Nick Kurtz for a 6-1 advantage in the fifth.
Jeffrey Springs pitched 6 2/3 innings to win his eighth game, striking out five and allowing no walks. Mason Miller pitched the ninth, firing 103-mph fastballs, for his 19th save of the season.
Ready for the break, and what’s next
To a man, the A’s are ready for a break, to rest, recharge and reassess.
That includes the fourth-year manager.
“It’s been a long run,” Mark Kotsay said before the game. “I mean, we’ve played a lot of games — 98 games is, to me, a long time before you get a break. Yeah, this will be a good opportunity for guys to recover a little bit. It’s been a grind, certainly.”
The A’s are 20-31 at home, the second worst-home mark in the majors behind the Colorado Rockies, though some of the victories have come in dramatic walk-off fashion.
The season resumes Friday with a three-game series in Cleveland, then three at Texas and four in Houston. The A’s return to West Sacramento on July 28 with a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners, followed by a three-game stand against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
All-Star A’s
The optimism for the A’s is rooted in young talents that dot the roster, including All-Stars in shortstop Jacob Wilson and slugger Brent Rooker. The All-Star game is Tuesday in Atlanta. Rooker is in Monday’s Home Run Derby.
Wilson and Kurtz could wind up in a race for American League Rookie of the Year honors. Wilson is batting .332 with nine homers and 42 RBI while Kurz is hitting .257 with 17 homers and 44 RBI.
Power surge
The A’s have three players aged 24 or younger with at least 10 home runs: left fielder Soderstrom with 18, first baseman Kurtz (17) and right fielder Lawrence Butler (13). The 22-year-old Kurtz looks the part of a slugger at 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, and he leads all MLB rookies in home runs.
The A’s led the majors entering Sunday with 50 runs scored in the ninth inning and were a Major League-best .367 with runners in scoring position. The club entered the series finale against Toronto tied for sixth in the majors with six walk-off victories, which has helped them go 18-17 since June 5.
“We’ve been playing better baseball,” Kotsay said of the recent run. “Coming out of the break, we’ve got a long road trip, a 10-day road trip, which will be challenging. But after that, I think our schedule eases itself out. We’ve got off days almost every week.”
The manager said after the game, “We should be looking at the second half as a continuation of an opportunity to keep growing, to keep building, and to keep winning series. We’ll come out of the break with a mission and commitment to really continuing our progress.”
A’s lead majors in home runs allowed
The A’s winning percentage of .412 entering Sunday was the fifth worst in the majors, but it is also the best record for the club after this many games in four years. That speaks of the lean times for a franchise that limped through its final seasons in Oakland with a low payroll and sagging fan morale.
The A’s are using Sutter Health Park for at least two more seasons as a stop-over before settling into their new digs in Las Vegas.
The A’s started the season 22-20, then lost 20 of 21 games from May 14 through June 4. The club entering Sunday fielded the second-highest ERA in the majors at 5.22, and the arms have allowed the most home runs in the majors with 146. At Sutter Health Park, the A’s have surrendered a big-league worst 86 homers, including two on Sunday.
Blue Jays manager tossed
Blue Jays manager Jay Schneider was ejected in the fifth inning, arguing that a foul ball was actually a home run. After a review of the replay, the call stood, and Schneider went off. He had to be restrained by two umpires as he sought out the third umpire, the one who called the shot foul.
Schneider was ejected and made the long walk through the outfield and though the door in the fence, leading to the clubhouse. Seconds later, on the next pitch of the game, David Schneider — no relation to the manager — crushed a pitch over the left-center fence to break up a no-hitter.
Luis Urias reinstated
The A’s on Sunday morning reinstated infielder Luis Urias from the 10-day injured list and sent Zack Gelof to Triple-A Las Vegas.
Urias was placed on the injured list on July 4 with a strained right hamstring after starting the season with seven home runs and 18 RBI in 71 games. He started 63 games for the A’s at second base and four at third. Gelof batted .080, collecting two hits in 27 at-bats with 13 strikeouts in eight games for the A’s.
“Zach’s been a part of this group, and will be a part of this group,” said Kotsay, the club’s manager. “Right now, I think the adjustments that need to be made offensively, it’s difficult to do here. The move to send him to Triple A and just get him going, build his confidence back up.”
A’s draft All-American Florida State ace
The A’s on Sunday afternoon used the 11th pick of the First-Year Player Draft to select Florida State All-American left-handed pitcher Jamie Arnold.
He went 8-2 with a 2.98 ERA in 15 starts as a junior, ranking 10th nationally with 119 strikeouts while limiting opponents to a .208 batting average.
Four of the A’s previous five first-round picks are on the current roster, including Kurtz, the No. 4 overall pick a year ago; Wilson, picked sixth overall in 2023; infielder Max Muncy, the 25th pick in 2021, and Soderstrom, the 26th pick in 2020.
This story was originally published July 13, 2025 at 5:32 PM.