Slugging A’s look to cap series win at Baltimore


The Oakland A’s have found some offense since coming to Baltimore on Monday, and they hope to keep swinging well in the series finale against the Orioles on Thursday afternoon.

Oakland bashed five homers, including two from Khris Davis, and collected 13 hits in a 10-3 victory Wednesday. Baltimore took the opener 12-4 on Monday, but the A’s banged out 11 hits. The second game saw Oakland roll to a 13-2 victory and finish with 14 hits.

The Athletics’ team batting average had dropped to .226 last weekend, but that mark is up to .252 heading into the series finale.

Aaron Brooks (1-1, 4.09) will start for Oakland against Baltimore’s Dylan Bundy (0-0, 7.36) on Wednesday.

For both, it’s their first time facing the other team this season. Brooks has no record and a 9.00 career ERA against the Orioles in a total of two relief appearances. Bundy is 2-0 with a 3.60 career ERA in four appearances (three starts) against the A’s.

Bundy will be asked to slow an Oakland attack that got homers Wednesday from Chad Pinder, Jurickson Profar and Matt Chapman in addition to Davis’ pair. Chapman and Davis hit back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning, the first time the A’s have done that this season. For Davis, it was career long ball No. 200.

It also was the 23rd time Davis came up with a multi-homer game.

“It’s nice to see some guys break out,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said. “(For Davis), it’s good to see him swinging the bat like he expects out of himself.”

The Orioles made a move earlier Wednesday, calling up left-hander Josh Rogers. He entered in relief for his season debut, and he gave up five runs on four hits in 3 2/3 innings. After the game, Rogers optioned back to Triple-A Norfolk.

Alex Cobb (lumbar strain) had landed on the injured list Tuesday, opening the door for recently signed Dan Straily to start Wednesday. Straily struggled, allowing five runs on eight hits in just 3 1/3 innings, including the first two homers.

The Orioles wanted him to come out of the bullpen at first and work his way into the rotation. He pitched in relief Sunday against the New York Yankees, yielding five runs in 1 1/3 innings, but Baltimore then was forced to give him a start.

Baltimore hasn’t done much on offense the past two games, scoring a total of five runs while watching Oakland’s offensive fireworks.

Trey Mancini came through again Wednesday with his sixth homer of the season, another opposite-field shot, which he’s made a habit of in the early days of 2019.

“When they are throwing the ball on the other side of the plate, I am not trying to do too much with it,” Mancini said. “I am not overswinging and just trying to take what’s given to me, so some of those just happen to for home runs. It’s not like I’m trying all the time to hit them that way. But that’s kind of the way it’s happened so far.”