Rooker Homers, Civale Deals, Athletics Beat Orioles 6-2

Brent Rooker changed the game with one swing, and Aaron Civale protected it with one of the biggest pitches of the afternoon. Rooker hit a three-run homer in the third inning, Civale escaped a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the fifth, and the Athletics beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-2 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

The win pushed the Athletics to 21-18 and kept them in first place in the AL West, a position built less on overpowering star turns than on the kind of timely offense and situational execution that keeps winning road games. Shea Langeliers drove in two runs, including an RBI single, while Nick Kurtz doubled twice and extended his on-base streak to 33 straight games. Rooker’s homer was his fifth of the season, but the night belonged to the cumulative effect of a lineup that kept applying pressure at the right moments.

Baltimore never found a clean answer for the A’s early burst. Shane Baz took the loss and fell to 1-4 after allowing five runs in 4 2/3 innings, a line that reflected how quickly the Orioles fell behind and how hard they found it to climb back. The Orioles entered having lost eight of their previous 10 games, and the mood around the team matched the results as the home crowd booed after another defeat.

Civale was not dominant in the conventional sense, but he was composed when it mattered most. He worked five scoreless innings, allowing six hits and three walks while striking out six on 97 pitches, 62 of them strikes. His defining sequence came in the fifth, when Baltimore loaded the bases with nobody out and still came away empty. Civale struck out Adley Rutschman, then induced soft flyouts from Pete Alonso and Samuel Basallo to preserve the lead and drain the inning of any momentum.

Mark Kotsay had reason to value the outing, and Baltimore manager Craig Albernaz had reason to see the missed chances as another symptom of a sputtering offense. For the Athletics, the formula was clear again: enough damage from the middle of the order, enough discipline on the bases and enough from the starter to let a lead stand up. Against a stronger name opponent in an early-May AL matchup, that was enough to steal another win and keep the standings tilted their way.