Sears revival, Butler breakout continue against Boston

The Oakland Athletics continue to look like a different beast in July.

Following a seven-run outburst in the latter half of yesterday’s 12-9 loss, the A’s lineup carried that momentum into today’s victory, evening up their series against the 50-40 Boston Red Sox.

One man who contributed significantly not only to this series but Oakland’s offensive resurgence as a whole is youngster Lawrence Butler. After demolishing a three-run shot to center field yesterday, Law, who turned 24 years old today, feasted on a bases loaded situation in the 3rd inning and pulled a 95 mph Nick Pivetta fastball into the left-field corner, scoring a pair and putting the A’s up 23-0 on Boston.

Since the turn of the month, Law is hitting a lofty .292/.320/.667, good for a 177 wRC+ and a .417 wOBA. Statcast backs those numbers up, measuring the quality of his output with a .409 xwOBA. This is the breakout A’s fans have been waiting, i.e. praying, for since his callup last August. With the Bleday-Andujar-Rooker-Soderstrom foursome proving to be a formidable start to the lineup, Oakland has been desperately searching for that fifth guy to help drive in runs, and Law looks ready right now to take on those responsibilities and help turn Oakland’s offense into a legitimate strength.

Through the end of June, the A’s had the league’s ninth-worst offense, carrying a below-average 93 wRC+ and averaging a bottom-three 3.55 runs per game. Since then, coinciding with Butler’s mini breakout, the green and gold have fully turned the page, skyrocketing their wRC+ all the way up to 142, good for second in the league, and nearly doubling their output to 6.88 runs per game.

The other star of tonight’s game was the older but still youthful JP Sears. The 28-year-old southpaw, coming off a 5-inning scoreless start against the lowly Los Angeles Angels, faced a tougher challenge in the sturdy Boston lineup, which includes 2024 All-Stars Jarren Duran and Rafael Devers, on top of heavy hitters like Tyler O’Neill and Connor Wong. Sears, however, made those studs look like scrubs, carving them up for 8 strikeouts over 5 ²⁄₃ innings and allowing just a sole blemish, a solo shot from Rob Refsnyder.

Following a June in which he allowed a whopping 20 runs in just 22 ²⁄₃ innings, the lefty has bounced back with a 0.84 ERA so far in July. Similar to Butler’s contributions to the A’s surging offense, Sears and others have helped stabilize the team’s injury-ridden starting staff, which was bottom five in both ERA and FIP through June. This month, they’ve pitched well enough to rank 13th in ERA, 5th in FIP, and 8th in WAR, helping the team to its solid 5-3 record.

In the top of the 7th, JJ Bleday saw what Butler did and wanted a bit of Boston glory for himself. Looking at Max Schuemann at first base with 2 outs, Bleday nearly hit Pivetta’s last pitch of the night out of the park. Though Duran fielded the ball cleanly off the wall, it wasn’t nearly fast enough to catch the speedy Schuemann, who was already rounding third base and came in to score the A’s 4th run.

Out of the bullpen, Austin Adams helped Sears finish the 6th inning by striking out Romy Gonzalez. T.J. McFarland and Lucas Erceg struggled to get through the 7th, allowing a run that cut the lead to two. However, after Tyler Nevin hit a bases-loaded sacrifice fly to extend the lead back to three, Erceg came back out for the 8th and pitched a shutdown 8th inning, halting Boston’s comeback hopes. And for the finale, newly minted All-Star Mason Miller stepped in for the 9th and more than justified his selection, striking out a pair with just 13 pitches and securing his 15th save of the season with a 5-2 victory.

It was an all-aroud team win for the Oakland A’s, with all facets of the team looking sharp and executing well. Even the defense put on a show with this clean relay of throws in the 5th inning from Bleday to Schuemann and all the way home to tag out Jamie Westbrook.

In the midst of one of the A’s toughest stretches of the season, the team has played like they belong as they seem to be hitting the next level of their development. If Oakland can take the series tomorrow and hold their own against the league-leading Philadelphia Phillies, they’ll head into the All-Star break with real momentum building to potentially break out in the second half.