Shea

Langeliers

The first homer was a 369-foot fly to right-center that would have left 10 ballparks. The second should have been a routine fly to deep center. Pete Crow-Armstrong, though, lost it almost immediately and just stood rooted to his spot instead of backing up and at least hoping the ball would fall in front of him and he could prevent a run. It’s Langeliers’ ninth career multihomer game and third of this season. He had been quiet of late, hitting .145/.254/.290 with three RBI in his previous 16 games.

Langeliers brought a pair of runs home on a double in the second inning. He later led off the eighth with a solo blast off George Soriano. It was the 12th of the season for the 28-year-old backstop. He’s slashing an incredible .340/.396/.641 with 29 runs scored and 25 RBI across 169 plate appearances.

As so often happens, Langeliers flexed his dad strength in his first at-bat back from the paternity list, launching an 0-2 fastball from Andrew Painter for a 412-foot (108.4 mph EV) two-run shot in the opening inning, giving the A’s a lead they would never relinquish. He also singled in the fourth inning and scored on an RBI single off the bat of Brent Rooker. With his two-hit effort, the 28-year-old backstop is slashing an impressive .338/.391/.640 with 11 homers and 20 RBI.

Langeliers is back after three days away for the birth of his child. He’s catching and batting second tonight against the Phillies.

Langeliers launches two homers on his wife’s birthday on Saturday before she gave birth to their first child on Sunday morning. The 28-year-old slugging backstop is going to take some time away from the club to be with his family for the next couple days while Austin Wynns and newly acquired Jonah Heim handle the catching duties.

The Athletics are undoubtedly very familiar with Heim’s work since he began his career with the club before becoming the starting backstop for the division-rival Rangers. The 30-year-old heads out to West Sacramento after being removed from Atlanta’s 40-man roster earlier on Monday. He’ll provide the Athletics with some additional depth behind Austin Wynns while Shea Langeliers is away on paternity leave for a couple days this week.

Langeliers has been scorching at the plate over the last week, with Saturday’s three-hit game his fifth multi-hit contest in seven games. He got the scoring started with a two-run homer off Slade Cecconi in the first inning, then added a solo homer in the fifth for his second of the game. Langeliers later singled in the seventh for his third hit. The 28-year-old catcher is hitting an incredible .336/.390/.627 with ten homers, 24 runs scored, and 18 RBI across 146 plate appearances.

The first was a 114.4-mph rocket off Noah Cameron that topped his season high for exit velocity by two mph and barely missed his career high of 114.5 mph. It’s Langeliers’ first career three-double game. He’s tied for fourth in the majors with 17 extra-base hits (nine doubles, eight homers).

It appears to be a matchup-specific wrinkle with Langeliers moving up to the leadoff spot to face Rangers southpaw MacKenzie Gore. Nick Kurtz moves into the second spot in the order with Colby Thomas hitting third and Tyler Soderstrom in the cleanup spot. Lefty Carlos Cortes retreats to the bench following Friday’s two-homer effort.

Athletics manager Mark Kotsay decided to shake up his lineup card on Thursday by moving McNeil to the top of the order with Nick Kurtz hitting third behind red-hot Shea Langeliers. The 34-year-old veteran has gone 2-for-7 with a pair of doubles during that span and is probably going to continue leading off against right-handed starters with Lawrence Butler going to the bottom of the order.