Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers made his first career appearance as a leadoff hitter Tuesday, a change A’s manager Mark Kotsay said he hoped would get the team off to “a quick start, hopefully.”
Mission accomplished.
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Facing the Washington Nationals, Langeliers made all kinds of MLB history with a 5-for-6, three-homer performance in a 16-7 blowout win. It might have not even been close to the best performance by an A’s hitter in the past two weeks, but it was still enough to put him in rare company.
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Langeliers isn’t a conventional leadoff hitter as a power-focused catcher, but the A’s bumped him up from his usual cleanup spot to ensure his hot bat saw as many plate appearances as possible, per MLB.com.
He struck first on the fourth pitch of the game against Nationals All-Star Mackenzie Gore, then struck again in the fifth and seventh inning. It was the second three-homer game of his career.
Langeliers had a chance at adding a fourth homer to the mix in the eighth inning, but settled for a double. The A’s also finished one batter short of giving him another chance in the ninth inning. Had he managed to homer once more, he would have joined teammate Nick Kurtz in accomplishing one of MLB’s rarest feats.
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Kurtz posted possibly the best offensive performance in MLB history on July 25, going 6-for-6 with 4 homers, a double, 6 runs scored and 8 RBI.
Still, Langeliers reached some notable milestones on his own. He tied the record among catchers with 15 total bases in a single game. He became the fourth catcher to ever post multiple three-homer games. He became the second catcher to ever post a three-homer game from the leadoff spot. He is the first player to post three homers in first career game as a leadoff hitter. He is the fifth catcher to ever hit at least 20 homers in three of his first four MLB seasons.
All fun stuff, but those stats all tell you what you should already know.
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Langeliers was swinging the hottest bat in baseball before Tuesday and now leads all of MLB with a .925 slugging percentage over the past 15 days. After a solid start to his career, he is enjoying a breakout season in which he ranks behind only MLB home run leader Cal Raleigh in slugging percentage among catchers with at least 300 plate appearances.
A former ninth overall pick and top 100 prospect, the A’s acquired the 27-year-old backstop as part of the four-player return from the Matt Olson trade.
It’s been a rough season overall for the A’s at 49-65, but they definitely appear to have a nice group of young hitters in hand between Langeliers, Kurtz, shortstop Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom plus the late-blooming Brent Rooker, all of whom are under team control through at least 2028, the season they are scheduled to finally make their long-awaited move to Las Vegas.
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