Lowrie, Piscotty come up clutch in 11th

Prior to Saturday afternoon’s game at Globe Life Field, Matt Olson joined Rangers outfielder Joey Gallo in preparation for the upcoming Home Run Derby.

Once the game began, a back-and-forth 8-4 win in 11 innings for the A's, Olson’s teammates needed no such invitation to join in on the fun.

A trio of early solo shots, including a ballpark record-setter by Seth Brown, plus an insurance homer in extras, helped the A’s seal the win. Oakland missed opportunities to add more, going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position in the first nine innings, but three clutch hits in the extra frames helped make the difference. None were bigger than Stephen Piscotty’s two-run blast, his first home run since May 14 and his fifth of the season overall.

“Stephen came up big, Jed [Lowrie] came up big and we got some big hits that we’ve been missing here recently,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said.

A’s starter James Kaprielian, facing the Rangers for a third time in 18 days, coughed up back-to-back homers in the first inning, courtesy of All-Stars Adolis García and Joey Gallo. Both home runs came on fastballs over the middle that Kaprielian simply located poorly.

But Melvin disclosed after the game that the rookie has had “a little bit of illness” the past two days, so his effort to power through five innings was much appreciated.

After the Rangers' early home runs, the A’s responded with a back-to-back salvo of their own in the ensuing half-inning: Sean Murphy went first, lacing a pitch into the seats in left-center field; Brown followed, going deep to right center. Both homers were smoked (over 109 mph), but Brown’s was particularly notable because it traveled an estimated 472 feet.

That’s the longest home run in the season-plus history of Globe Life Field, and it’s the longest for an Oakland player since May 31, 2018.

“Every ball that’s hit pretty good [here] sounds really good,” Melvin said of Brown’s blast. “To do it at that trajectory means he squared it up about as good as he can hit it.”

Brown later doubled to the opposite field, and the success of his early at-bats allowed the lefty to receive an under-the-radar nod of respect from his manager in the seventh. Melvin kept Brown in the game with a runner on second and one out, even though the Rangers had turned to hard-throwing lefty Taylor Hearn out of the bullpen. Brown didn't find his way on base, but he did hit a 103.5-mph lineout to center field.

“It’s good to see Brownie swing the bat well, because when he swings the bat well he’s a guy that we’ve hit in the middle of the lineup before,” Melvin said. “Sometimes it just takes a couple decent at-bats and you get your confidence back.”

As always, matchups are still a factor. That’s why the right-handed Piscotty entered for Brown against a different lefty in the 10th. He reached on an error in that inning before demolishing a middle-middle fastball in the following frame -- that time against right-hander Spencer Patton.

Oakland’s game-winning hit actually belonged to Lowrie. After enjoying his own homer-happy moment with a solo shot in the fourth, Lowrie rolled an RBI single through the right side with one out in the 11th.

Lowrie hasn’t been the A’s best hitter across all situations, but he’s been as clutch as they come with runners in scoring position. In that setting, Lowrie is 30-for-74 (.405) this season. Melvin believes part of the veteran's crunch-time success is due to his calm mindset.

“There’s not a lot of mish-mash going on in his head sometimes,” Melvin said. “And in key situations, he’s that much better because he thinks really clearly. That comes from experience and success.”

Home runs are a big part of what the A’s do offensively, but that element has lacked so far in July. Prior to Saturday’s four-homer game, Oakland had just four home runs across its previous eight games.

Finding other ways to win is important, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to rely on something familiar.

“Unless you have (batters) one-through-nine hitting home runs all year, it’s not gonna be a consistent thing,” Lowrie said. “So you have to find ways to score runs other ways as well, but it’s definitely a strength of ours. And we’re definitely gonna win a lot of games because of it.”