Sean Murphy knew it off the crack of the bat. So did everyone in attendance. It had the sound. Murphy held his swing follow-through, took several steps out of the box with bat in hand, then gently laid his lumber on the ground before beginning his leisurely jog around the bases.
Murphy’s no-doubt moonshot highlighted the A’s 6-1 win over the Twins on Friday night at Target Field as the green and gold smacked a season-high four home runs. For manager Bob Melvin, along with the pure quantity of homers, there were also the aesthetics.
“[Target Field] doesn’t play small, but visually, it’s a fun place to hit homers,” Melvin said. “You can hit ‘em in upper decks. You can hit ‘em out on the street in right field. It’s like a really good Wiffle ball field where there’s just good visual for homers.”
Ramón Laureano kicked off Oakland’s in-game home run derby with a solo shot, turning on a low-and-inside sinker and sending the pitch into the second deck.
A fan made an impressive catch of Laureano’s laser; with an adult beverage in one hand, the spectator slightly reached over the railing, juggling the ball several times after contact before securing the souvenir, then triumphantly raising his trophy to the displeased crowd. The collective angst would soon further mount.
Murphy kept the second-deck party going with the aforementioned two-run shot. Matt Shoemaker certainly knew it was gone; instead of watching Murphy’s blast sail into the night, he lowered his head, walked toward first and appeared to check his fingernails before briefly glancing to left field.
Stephen Piscotty and Mark Canha couldn’t quite match their teammates and send one into the second deck, but their round-trippers counted all the same.
“If you make mistakes, sometimes they get missed or whatever,” said Shoemaker, who allowed three of the four home runs. “That would’ve been nice if that was the case. That wasn’t the case.”
Along with Murphy’s home run, the backstop had an impressive drive into left-center with an exit velocity of 106.4 mph that was caught by center fielder Max Kepler at the warning track. All in all, it was an encouraging night for Murphy, who entered Friday hitting .171 in May with only two extra-base hits.
“He had some good swings tonight,” Melvin said. “Everybody’s going to go through a little bit of a rough patch. We moved him down the lineup a little bit to take some pressure off. If he’s hitting down in the eight hole, it means our lineup has a lot of length to it and can do damage throughout. At some point in time, he’ll get back up there again.”
Those homers were more than enough support for Frankie Montas, who allowed just one run across six innings. The lone run came, rather appropriately, via home run. The outing was a solid bounce back after Montas was tagged for six runs and three homers in four innings in his previous outing against Minnesota on April 21.
“I was just missing my spots a lot,” Montas said of his previous start. "I didn’t have my breaking stuff that day, my slider wasn’t good. Today, I felt like my slider was way better than what it was last time. I was able to hit my spots today.”
Not only was it an impressive rebound for Montas, but for the offense as well, which scored just one run in Thursday’s loss to the Red Sox. Murphy said having that resiliency is the sign of a good team. Given the A’s sit alone in first place in the American League West, they’re most certainly that.
Not every night will have as much offense as Friday, but for the A’s, the four homers were an example of what this team can do at its very best.
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A's have plenty of fun, crush 4 HRs in win - MLB.com
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