With two outs in the 11th inning against Rockies righty Angel Chivilli, Jacob Wilson delivered a single to right to break a 3-3 tie and give the Athletics a 5-3 lead and ultimately a 6-3 win in snowy Colorado on Friday.
Chivilli threw an 87-mph slider for a ball before regrettably throwing a 95-mph four-seam fastball that Wilson squared up.
Jacob Wilson drives in two for the lead 🤩 pic.twitter.com/4LEkjG4zve
— Athletics on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) April 4, 2025
The top prospect’s go-ahead hit, which enabled the Athletics to snap their four-game losing streak, came 10 innings after he launched an 89-mph slider from Rockies right-handed starter Ryan Feltner 414 feet to left-center for the second home run of his 2025 MLB season and big-league career.
Go-ahead homer for Jacob Wilson 😤 pic.twitter.com/IyrQsLaqTn
— Athletics on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) April 4, 2025
The Athletics squandered a 3-2 lead in the eighth and momentum was on the Rockies’ side. Wilson and his team, though, stepped up when it mattered most.
“Obviously, the four-game [losing streak] is unfortunate,” Wilson prefaced on NBC Sports California’s “Athletics Postgame Live” with Dallas Braden and Jenny Cavnar. “But we came out today – obviously it’s pretty cold – but we woke the bats up late in the game there; a bunch of guys got on base and had good bats. And pitching came in to do their thing.
“I definitely love them, for sure” Wilson added about big moments.
The Athletics (3-5) and Rockies (1-6) had 11 hits apiece, with Lawrence Butler, JJ Bleday and Shea Langeliers having two hits each, too. But Wilson’s two-RBI single and the ensuing RBI double from Gio Urshela couldn’t have been more timely; before those two, the Athletics didn’t have a hit since a Miguel Andújar double in the fifth.
Wilson’s 2-for-5 outing shouldn’t be a surprise despite coming in the snow and chilly 35-degree weather.
The 23-year-old entered riding a seven-game hitting streak and now stands as the first Athletics player since Billy Butler, who hit safely over the first 12 games of the 2012 campaign, to collect a hit over the Athletics’ first eight games of a season. Wilson is up to nine hits this year.
“I talked about him continually this offseason and into spring training, he’s got one of the better bat-to-ball skills,” four-year Athletics manager Mark Kotsay told reporters postgame. “He’s on display right now. He can turn on a pitch, that was a breaking ball he drove out to left. And to get the base hit to put us ahead there in the 11th, [he] hit the ball the other way.
“He’s swinging the bat really well right now; it’s fun to watch.”
Mark Kotsay loves Jacob Wilson’s ability to use all fields at the plate 👏 pic.twitter.com/LZT0HEQ2rf
— Athletics on NBCS (@NBCSAthletics) April 4, 2025
And as Wilson mentioned, the Athletics were dialed on the mound, which surely is a relief for the club after it allowed the Chicago Cubs to score 35 runs over three games in the frustrating Sutter Health Park debut series in West Sacramento.
Athletics righty Osvaldo Bido formidably allowed two runs and six hits while collecting five strikeouts over five innings against the Rockies.
“He controlled the baseball today,” Kotsay told reporters postgame. “Today, he was smooth, the ball was coming out of his hand. It’s a cold day, but for him to maintain the ability to throw strikes was most important, and he did a nice job getting us five innings.”
Five relievers – Justin Sterner, Tyler Ferguson, José Leclerc, Noah Murdock and All-Star closer Mason Miller – finished the job by allowing one run over the final six innings. Miller collected his second save of 2025 after shutting down Colorado in the 11th.
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