Langeliers hits his third homer of game in ninth
ARLINGTON, Texas — Shea Langeliers hit three home runs, including a two-run drive in the ninth inning that lifted the Oakland Athletics over the Texas Rangers 4-3 on Tuesday night.
Langeliers, a 26-yearold who entered with 29 career big league homers, hit solo shots in the second off Nathan Eovaldi and in the seventh against David Robertson.
“It feels good to get something like that when you’re seeing the ball that good,” said Langeliers, who attended nearby Keller High and played about 100 miles south of Globe Life Field at Baylor.
On the winning homer, he said he was “just trying to be aggressive in the middle of the plate.”
The A’s have won three of their last four games, improving to 4-7.
“We’re kind of playing relaxed and free right now, just going out there and giving it all we’ve got and seeing what happens,” Langeliers said.
Last season, Oakland’s fourth win the A’s at 4-16 on April 21 en route to a franchise-worst 50-112 record.
“We’ve played better baseball since the start of the season, when we kind of got off to an unnerving start,” manager Mark Kotsay said.
The World Series champion Rangers (6-5) are on their first losing streak of the season, at three games.
“We ran into a guy that just had a huge night,” manager Bruce Bochy said.
Texas led 3-2 in the ninth when Seth Brown walked with one out off José Leclerc (0-2) and Langeliers sent a first-pitch fastball to left-center for his fourth home run this season.
It was the first three-homer game for Langeliers, who hit a pair Oct. 2, 2022, at Seattle and last Aug. 23 at the Chicago White Sox. The only other starting A’s catcher to hit three homers in a game was Mickey Cochrane in 1925.
Langeliers tied the score 1-1 when he homered on a splitter from Eovaldi and 2-2 when he connected on a knuckle-split from Robertson, who was pitching on his 39th birthday.