The Athletics ended their 10-game losing streak in the most lopsided way possible, beating the Washington Nationals 15-1 on Saturday in Sacramento — one night after the same opponent hung 23 runs on them. Per OptaSTATS, it was the largest margin of victory by a team snapping a losing streak of 10 or more games since 1955.
J.T. Ginn made the turnaround possible. He carried a no-hit bid into the seventh inning and finished with one hit allowed over 6.1 scoreless frames, striking out seven against three walks to improve to 8-6. Against a Nationals lineup that had put up 21 hits on Friday, Ginn faced trouble almost never; Washington’s only run came on a Jorbit Vivas sacrifice fly in the ninth off Luis Medina.
The offense settled things immediately. Jacob Wilson opened the bottom of the first with his fifth home run, and the A’s scored five times in the inning against Zack Littell, who was charged with eight runs over six innings. Tyler Soderstrom added a two-run homer, his 16th, in the sixth, and Carlos Cortes made it 9-0 in the seventh with his seventh — the only three home runs of the night for the A’s, all part of a 15-run, top-to-bottom effort.
The seventh turned into a parade: Jeff McNeil and Wilson had RBI singles before Shea Langeliers cleared the bases with a three-run double, his 17th two-bagger of the year and the whole of his three-RBI night. Wilson finished 3-for-6 with two RBI, McNeil 3-for-5 with two RBI, and Joshua Kuroda-Grauer drove in two.
One win does not repair a 42-56 record, and Washington still takes the series with a win Sunday. But after ten losses capped by Friday’s humiliation, a night where the rotation’s most reliable arm dominated and every spot in the order contributed is the version of this team the front office keeps insisting exists.
For fantasy purposes, Ginn is a viable mixed-league stream at home after holding a lineup that scored 23 runs Friday to one hit over 6.1 innings, and he is now 8-6 on a team 14 games under .500. Soderstrom’s 16 homers make him a must-start corner outfielder, and Wilson remains a batting-average anchor at shortstop. Cortes is a deep-league dart only, though the playing time in right field has been steady.
