OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Brent Rooker hit his 27th homer of the season and the Oakland Athletics added two more long balls to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-5 on Friday night.
After leading the majors with 45 homers in July, the A’s showed no signs of slowing down in their first game of August in front of a season-high 21,060 fans at the Oakland Coliseum. Shea Langeliers and Seth Brown went deep against Gavin Stone (9-5) as the A’s improved to 9-4 since the All-Star break
Teoscar Hernandez hit a two-run homer in the first against Joey Estes (5-4) but the Dodgers managed little else until Shohei Ohtani broke an 0-for-15 slump with a three-run homer with two outs in the ninth.
But it wasn’t enough for the Dodgers, who lost for the fifth time in six games. Los Angeles’ NL West lead over Arizona and San Diego dropped to four games.
Estes allowed two runs and two hits in six innings, retiring 15 straight following Hernandez’s homer. Will Smith and Gavin Lux drew back-to-back two walks in the sixth to end that stretch but Estes struck out Hernandez to get out of the jam and end his night.
Austin Adams got Ohtani to ground out with the bases loaded and two outs in the seventh.
Stone’s rough recent stretch continued as he started to run into trouble in the fourth when Langeliers and Brown hit solo homers to tie the game at 2.
Stone was replaced after allowing an RBI triple to Miguel Andujar and a run-scoring double to JJ Bleday in the fifth. Rooker greeted Joe Kelly with a two-run shot to make it 6-2. Stone is 0-3 with a 7.15 ERA in his last five starts.
Oakland is now fourth in the majors this season with 145 homers despite ranking in the bottom 10 in runs scored, with more than half of the A’s runs coming on long balls.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Dodgers: 1B Freddie Freeman isn’t expected to join the team this weekend as he tends to his 3-year-old son Maximus. Freeman went on the family emergency list last week after Maximus was hospitalized because of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare neurological disorder. … RHP Walker Buehler (hip) will make one more rehab start at Triple-A Oklahoma City before rejoining the Dodgers.
Athletics: INF Darell Hernaiz (ankle) was reinstated from the 60-day IL and INF Brett Harris was optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas. RHP Luis Medina was transferred to the 60-day IL to create a roster spot for Hernaiz.
UP NEXT
RHP Jack Flaherty will make his Dodgers debut after being acquired from Detroit before the trade deadline. Flaherty was 7-5 with a 2.95 ERA for the Tigers this season. RHP Mitch Spence (7-6, 4.47 ERA) will start for the A’s.
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