Three games into his major league career, Tommy White had a four-hit night. The rookie went 4-for-5 and kept the decisive rally alive as the Athletics scored three times in the seventh to beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 5-2 on Monday night at Chase Field — their second win in three games since snapping a 10-game losing streak.
The seventh unwound against Arizona reliever Kevin Ginkel with the score tied 2-2. Shea Langeliers and Lawrence Butler singled, and with two outs White beat out a comebacker that deflected off Ginkel — an out call at first overturned on the Athletics’ challenge — to load the bases. Pinch-hitter Jeff McNeil lined a two-run single to center, and White came home from third on a wild pitch as McNeil stole second. Fifteen hits in all for the A’s, who never trailed.
The early scoring belonged to the rookies and the shortstop. Joshua Kuroda-Grauer opened the second inning with his first career home run, driving the first pitch he saw from Mitch Bratt out to left-center, and Jacob Wilson added his sixth homer in the fifth. Arizona’s only answer was Ketel Marte‘s two-run shot in the sixth off Jeffrey Springs, who finished five innings with two earned runs on six hits and is now 16 consecutive starts without a win — a stretch that Monday also included Nolan Arenado’s 2,000th career hit. Luis Medina threw two scoreless innings for the win, José Suarez worked a clean eighth, and Hogan Harris struck out three in the ninth for his seventh save.
At 43-57 the A’s are sellers with two weeks to the deadline, but the second-half lineup is starting to show what the rebuild is for. White has reached base in all three of his games, Kuroda-Grauer is hitting over .400 through 16 career games, and Wilson keeps producing at the top of the order.
For fantasy purposes, White is the add — the playing time is immediate, the contact skills that made him a college star have translated so far, and he is available in nearly every league. Harris has quietly consolidated the ninth inning and is a legitimate second closer in 12-team formats. Wilson remains a batting-average anchor at shortstop, and McNeil’s multi-position eligibility plays in deep leagues even in a part-time role.
