Butler’s home-run trio highlights A’s historic rout of Phillies – MASHAHER

Butler’s home-run trio highlights A’s historic rout of Phillies originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Athletics’ hitters might be the only ones not looking forward to the upcoming MLB All-Star break.

Brent Rooker, Seth Brown and Lawrence Butler all must be particularly disappointed after each homered multiple times in the A’s 18-3 drubbing of the Philadelphia Phillies on Sunday afternoon.

Rooker started things off for Oakland in the fourth inning with a 450-foot blast to dead center field — one that outright cleared the ivy batter’s eye at Citizens Bank Park. After Trea Turner went deep in the first inning, Rooker knocked in JJ Bleday to give the A’s the lead for good.

That homer marked No. 14,000 in the long history of the Athletics franchise. Home run No. 1 came off the bat of Lave Cross all the way back in 1901 while the team was, appropriately, based in Philadelphia.

Jumping forward 123 years, Butler was the next Oakland hitter to trot around the bases, finding the Phillies’ bullpen behind the fence in left-center field for a two-run homer.

Butler had only two home runs on the season entering July, but he had added four more this month before Sunday.

“We showed up to the field today, and everyone was in a good mood, good spirits,” Butler told Jenny Cavnar and Dallas Braden after the game on NBC Sports California’s “A’s Postgame Live.” “The barrels were just hot today. This was just one of those days for the guys.”

Spoiler alert: the barrels would get hotter.

After a mammoth first homer, Rooker outdid himself with his second of the day in the sixth inning. This ball went 452 feet — two feet farther than his first shot — again knocking in Bleday to extend the A’s advantage to 6-1.

Two batters later, Seth Brown got in on the fun, sending a ball to the right-field bleachers.

“Today was pretty much our best offensive game of the year,” manager Mark Kotsay told reporters postgame. “The guys swung the bats really well. We’ve been hitting homers this year, but today was an exceptional day from that standpoint.”

In the seventh inning, Butler went the other way for his second of the day. After the Phillies scored twice to stay within striking range, he narrowly cleared the left-field fence to push the Oakland lead back to six.

Next up, Brown’s eighth-inning home run to right field was one for the record books. Alongside Rooker and Butler, Brown became the third Athletic of the game to go deep multiple times; it’s the first time three A’s have done so in a game in franchise history.

But the fun wasn’t done yet for Oakland in the City of Brotherly Love.

Later in the same inning, Butler launched a two-run shot 449 feet to left center, his third on the day. After Sunday’s massive performance, the second-year right fielder now has seven home runs and 17 RBI in July; he had eight total RBI from March through June.

Butler admitted after the game that Rooker partially was responsible for that last round-tripper.

“Before that, Brent gave me a really good inspirational talk about how I’m feeling right now,” Butler told Cavnar and Braden. “I really do give a lot of credit to him on that last one. He got me in the mode to go back up there and put up another at-bat.”

Finally, facing Phillies backup catcher Garrett Stubbs on the mound, Zack Gelof hit home run No. 8 of the day for Oakland. Just for good measure, Gelof’s grand slam pushed the margin to 18-3.

Though their offense ranks toward the bottom of the MLB this season, the A’s have shown an ability to get hotter than anyone on individual days. Oakland entered Sunday averaging just 3.84 runs per game — third-lowest in the majors — but they now have the three highest-scoring performances of the season as a team.

The A’s have now scored 18, 19 and 20 runs in separate games this year, while no other team has scored more than 17.

Perhaps the All-Star break will bring some more consistency to the Oakland offense, but regardless, the A’s finished the first half of the season in a good mood.