Langeliers gets liftoff vs. one of MLB's nastiest pitches

OAKLAND -- Heading to the plate to face Twins closer Jhoan Duran, whose fastball averages over 100 mph, A’s catcher Shea Langeliers knew better than to overthink his approach against the right-handed flamethrower.

“I was looking for a fastball,” Langeliers said. “A guy like that, if you’re not on the heater, you’re done. He throws so hard. You’ve got to do your best to just shrink your zone.”

Prepared for a heater, Langeliers instead got a famed “splinker” from Duran that has gained attention as one of the filthiest pitches in baseball.

It was the only pitch he needed.

The first-pitch splinker up in the zone at 93.7 mph was ambushed by Langeliers, who sent it over the left-field wall for a go-ahead two-run homer. The 397-foot drive was Langeliers’ 14th of the year and lifted the A’s to a 6-5 victory on Friday night at the Coliseum.

“Shea’s got the slug,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said of Langeliers, now tied with Adley Rutschman of the Orioles for most homers among AL catchers. “When he hits the ball, he hits it hard. … It was a perfect swing. Really big moment and a really big hit for us.”

Langeliers’ homer was only the second of the season off Duran’s splinker. Entering Friday, opposing hitters were 4-for-33 (.121) against the pitch.

“In that case, I just reacted,” Langeliers said. “His stuff is next level. I got a good pitch in that zone and put my ‘A’ swing swing on it. I was going up there shrinking my zone early and just being aggressive.”

The comeback victory came after the A’s blew a three-run lead in the seventh. Austin Adams took over for rookie starter Joey Estes -- who limited the Twins to two runs on five hits and a walk with a strikeout in six innings -- and surrendered a go-ahead three-run homer by Willi Castro.

The continued display of resilience is what Kotsay hoped to see from his young ballclub upon returning from a 0-7 road trip, which included a four-game sweep at the hands of these same Twins. Since that winless stretch, the A’s have won three of their past four.

The latest victory featured a rarity: Sean Newcomb picked up the win without officially facing a batter. He entered with two outs in the eighth inning and finished the frame with a pickoff of Austin Martin at first base to keep the deficit at one run. Newcomb became the first pitcher in A’s history to be credited with a win without officially facing a batter and just the 27th Major Leaguer in the modern era (since 1901). The last instance before Friday was Giants reliever Tony Watson on Aug. 30, 2020.

“The pickoff was big for us to get out of that inning,” Kotsay said. “It carried some momentum in the dugout. There was still a good positive feeling in the dugout that we were going to score and get back in it.”

As for Langeliers, his .207/.265/.445 slash line might make it appear as if he’s underperformed. A look at his Baseball Savant page, though, tells a different tale.

Entering Friday, the gap between Langeliers’ actual batting average (.202) and expected batting average (.247) was tied for the fourth-biggest difference of any hitter in MLB with a minimum of 200 plate appearances. His expected slugging percentage of .516 ranked in the 92nd percentile.

For Langeliers, the large discrepancies, while frustrating, indicate to him that he is making plenty of quality contact. Through most of the season, he hasn’t been rewarded as much as he probably should, but the right approach is there.

“I’m not going to lie to you,” Langeliers said. “You hit the ball hard, and it’s like, ‘Gosh, these should be hits.’ It sucks. I feel like I’ve done it enough this year to realize it’s definitely just part of the game.

“The hard thing is, what a lot of people do is you go through stuff like that where you’re hitting the ball well but you’re not getting any hits, and then you try to tweak or change something to try to get hits and you just go down a rabbit hole. My goal is just to go up there and hit the ball hard.”