WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Tyler Soderstrom opened Thursday night’s game with a long home run and closed it with a one-out RBI single to give the Athletics a 5-4 11-inning victory over the Atlanta Braves.
Soderstrom went 3 for 5 with four RBIs, his winning hit plating automatic runner Brent Rooker.
The Braves have lost 11 of 14 games and haven’t won a series since they swept the New York Mets in a three-game homestand June 17-19. Atlanta has since lost five series since then and split one with the Mets.
Soderstrom’ 445-foot three-run homer to right field in the first inning gave the A’s a 3-0 lead.
JP Sears, making his 100th career appearance, retired the first 11 Braves batters he faced, five by strikeouts. Back-to-back doubles by Austin Riley and Sean Murphy put the Braves on the scoreboard with two outs in the fourth to end Sears’ streak of 15 1/3 scoreless innings, which was the second-longest active one to Detroit’s Tarik Skubal (18).
Jurickson Profar then erased the deficit with a two-run homer to left field.
Ozzie Albies of the Braves and the A’s Nick Kurtz exchanged homers to send the game into extra innings.
The temperature at first pitch was 99 degrees (37 Celsius), the highest for an A’s home game since that measurement was tracked daily in 1991. The highest-recorded temperature for an Athletics home game occurred July 27, 1956 when the then-Kansas City A’s hosted the New York Yankees in 101-degree heat.
Key moment
Five A’s relievers combined to allow one hit and one run over six innings.
Key stat
A’s closer Mason Miller struck out Sean Murphy on a pitch in the ninth inning clocked at 104.1 mph. He threw five pitches that were all at least 102.4 mph.
Up next
Toronto Blue Jays RHP Max Scherzer (0-0, 4.77 ERA) faces A’s RHP Luis Severino (2-10, 5.30) as the teams open a three-game series.
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