CHICAGO — Shea Langeliers homered twice, including a towering solo drive that cleared the Wrigley Field bleachers in left, and the Athletics beat the Chicago Cubs 4-3 on Tuesday night.
Langeliers’ third multihomer game of the season and No. 5 for his career upped his season total to 28, extending his career best.
Both home runs came off Cubs starter Jordan Wicks (2-4), who allowed four runs and seven hits in five innings.
“Obviously, (Wicks) had a really good changeup working. So just kind of hunting, trying to get the height right in the strike zone, and just being aggressive to the fastball, and hope you recognize the other stuff,” Langeliers told NBC Sports California.
“I’ve kind of honed in on my approach and pitch recognition, and I feel like I’ve done a lot better job this year of that.”
Lawrence Butler also went deep for Oakland, which stopped a three-game losing streak. The skid included back-to-back losses to the MLB-worst White Sox.
Of the 613 runs the A’s have scored this season, 308, or a staggering 50.2%, have been scored on home runs. That’s the highest percentage in the major leagues and in Oakland team history. The previous highest percentage for the A’s was 48.8% in 2017.
“We don’t preach to hit home runs. We preach to the ball hard, go the other way, and … we’re seeing the results,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “We’re seeing the buy-in from the guys, and it’s rewarding to know that these guys aren’t focused on hitting homers. They’re really just focused on hitting the ball hard, and seeing the success of that has been fun.”
Ian Happ hit two solo homers for the Cubs (77-74), who fell six games behind the New York Mets for the final NL wild card with 11 games left.
Happ’s 25th homer, a one-out drive to left on a 103.2 mph fastball from All-Star closer Mason Miller, got Chicago within one in the ninth. But Miller retired Dansby Swanson on a grounder to first before striking out Seiya Suzuki for his 26th save.
Oakland native Nico Hoerner hit three singles for Chicago, and Michael Busch drove in a run.
Oakland rookie Mitch Spence (8-9) pitched five effective innings for his first win since July 27. He permitted two runs and seven hits.
“He did do a nice job limiting the damage,” Kotsay said. “It wasn’t his sharpest outing tonight, but then again, in the fifth inning, he throws a 97 mph sinker, which I had a conversation (with him) in the dugout after that. Where’s that been all year?
“He did a good job. Got through five and we turned it over to the bullpen.”
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