A’s slug EIGHT home runs, hang 18 runs on baseball's top team

PHILADELPHIA -- The A’s powered their way into the All-Star break with a historic 18-3 rout of the Phillies on Sunday afternoon at Citizens Bank Park to secure a series win over the best team in baseball.

Brent Rooker homered twice. Seth Brown also went deep twice. Lawrence Butler hit three home runs.

“That’s crazy. It’s crazy. Absolutely ridiculous,” said Joey Estes, who earned the win after holding the Phils to three runs (two earned) over six innings. “To have three guys have multiple home runs in a game? I’ve never seen it before.”

There’s a reason for that.

It marked the first time in A’s history that the club had three players hit multiple homers in the same game. No team had done it since the Cubs on Aug. 30, 2020.

Toss in Zack Gelof’s ninth-inning grand slam and the eight home runs matched the A's franchise record set on June 27, 1996, against the California Angels. The eight homers are also the most by any team since the Dodgers hit eight on July 10, 2021. No team has hit more than eight since Sept. 4, 1999, when the Reds hit nine -- also in Philadelphia.

“From an offensive standpoint, today was our best game of the year,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “It definitely feels good to play good baseball against the best team in baseball.”

After being left off the All-Star roster last week, a disappointed Rooker said he just wanted to finish the first half strong. It’s safe to say he did exactly that after putting on a performance Sunday that could rival anything you see in Monday night’s Home Run Derby.

First, Rooker cleared the batter’s eye in center field with a 450-foot homer in the fourth inning. Then just two innings later, he teed off for a 452-foot home run onto the concourse in left-center field. Rooker is just the seventh player in the 10 years of Statcast tracking to hit multiple 450-foot homers in the same game -- and two of the previous six happened at hitter-friendly Coors Field.

"Both those were about as clean as I can catch one,” Rooker said. “ ... The ball was flying out there, so that definitely helps."

For Butler, he said it was the first time he’s hit three home runs in a game at any level.

“Little League, tee-ball -- never done it,” Butler said. “That was pretty cool.”

Still, Butler wanted more.

He stepped to the plate in the ninth inning with a chance to become just the 19th player in AL/NL history -- and the first in A’s history -- with a four-homer game. The pitcher standing in his way? Phillies catcher Garrett Stubbs, who had just given up Gelof’s grand slam moments earlier.

Butler missed on a big hack at a 1-0 pitch. On the next offering, a 59.4 mph floater, he swung so hard that his helmet fell off … but simply fouled the ball back to the screen. Butler fouled off another pitch before ultimately flying out to center field on the sixth pitch of the at-bat.

“Yeah, I was trying to get four [homers],” Butler said. “That's what messed me up -- I was just doing way too much, so I couldn't get it. But it was a cool moment.”

The A’s are the only team in the Majors to score 18 runs in a game this season, and they’ve now done it three times.

“We seem to kind of have these games where everything clicks and guys just go out there and keep hitting balls out of the park,” Rooker said. “It's really fun to watch. It just shows the potential of our offense and what we can be when we're going well.”

Oakland’s eight home runs traveled a combined projected distance of 3,342 feet, according to Statcast.

“That sounds like the distance back to Oakland,” Kotsay joked.

Kotsay, though, will actually be flying to Arlington. He, along with All-Star closer Mason Miller, are accompanying the Phillies’ All-Star contingent on their chartered plane to the Midsummer Classic.

Ideally, though, Kotsay would rather not be taking four days off on the heels of one of the team’s best offensive showings in the history of the franchise.

“From a momentum standpoint, you'd like to be going somewhere to keep playing,” Kotsay said. “We've got the next four days to go enjoy ourselves and spend some time with family and friends, but when we get back, this is going to be something we need to talk about and build off of.

“Understand that we can compete on the field with the elite teams when we play good baseball.”