By admin 
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
Read our AI Policy.
- Civale was charged with six runs while working three innings in his return.
- Pittsburgh amassed 16 hits and every starting batter got at least one hit.
- The A’s lost 12-4, falling to 36-38 while the Pirates rose to 38-37.
The first pitch of Athletics starting pitcher Aaron Civale’s return from injury Wednesday looked good. It was a fastball on the corner of the zone taken for a strike by Pittsburgh Pirates slugger Spencer Horwitz.
Read more Rocklin office buildings to house Placer sheriff, public services after $13M deal
The second — a fastball Horwitz hit about 100 mph for a double to right field — was the start of a Pirate plunder at Sutter Health Park.
It wouldn’t be the last or second-to-last two-bagger of the inning, nor the last Horwitz would hit off Civale on Wednesday, and it set the tone for a rough, 12-4 defeat for the A’s while souring Civale’s return that was expected to aid a battered A’s pitching rotation.
The loss kept the A’s (36-38) below .500 and pushed the Pirates (38-37) above .500 as Pittsburgh won the series finale to take two out of three games.
“I’ve just got to be better,” Civale said postgame. “Missing locations on pitches, didn’t minimize how I should and wasn’t as efficient as I should have been. So I have to evaluate what happened, flush it and move forward.”
Overall, the Pirates amassed 16 hits, with every starter in the lineup getting at least one.
The A’s didn’t get their first hit until the bottom of the fourth inning and a late push led by a two-RBI single for Jacob Wilson and solo home runs from Henry Bolte and Zack Gelof proved too little too late to chip away at the Pirates’ lead.
Civale’s ERA balloons after tough start
In Civale’s three innings of work, it seemed like anything the Pirates put in play would land for a hit.
The Pirates scored five runs off nine hits, four of which were doubles, in just the first three frames. A walk of Pirates second baseman Brandon Lowe to lead off the fourth inning led to a sixth run being attributed to Civale, after Ryan O’Hearn homered off A’s reliever Jose Suarez.
“I just think there was just a lot of balls that missed middle-middle,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said postgame. “For Aaron to be successful, he’s got to have the mix to keep (hitters) off balance.”
The tough outing raised Civale’s season ERA from 4.20 to 4.91 and was the third straight start where the 31-year-old right-hander surrendered at least five earned runs. Before those three starts, Civale held a 2.70 ERA and a 5-1 record.
Civale was recovering from right shoulder tendonitis, which landed him on the injured list in late May. He threw 4 1/3 scoreless frames in a dominant rehab start with the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators last week, but was still on a pitch count Wednesday, Kotsay said before the game. He was officially recalled early Wednesday.
Civale said postgame that he was physically feeling fine, saying his injury didn’t play a factor in his performance.
Medina, Bolte were bright spots for A’s
With A’s ace Luis Severino still likely weeks out from an IL return, the team was hoping Civale could add a consistent veteran presence to complement three young stars in Gage Jump, Jack Perkins and J.T. Ginn as well as veteran lefty Jeffrey Springs.
Read more No robot or AI instructors: Bill would mandate CSU courses be taught by humans
Instead, Civale’s early exit forced the A’s to use three bullpen arms across six innings — with both Jose Suarez and Luis Medina throwing more than two innings.
“When they’re doing well out there, it’s great, but they’ve been doing a big part of the workload,” Civale said of the bullpen. “Hopefully I can be better next time I’m out there to make sure that many innings don’t have to be covered by them.”
A’s reliever Scott Barlow struggled mightily in the top of the seventh inning after retiring the final out of the sixth. Barlow allowed a home run, a single and two hit by pitches without recording an out, bringing Medina in with bases the loaded and no outs.
Medina allowed four runs to score, three of those credited to Barlow, but was able to bear down to finish the rest of the game — striking out four Pirates in the last two frames while hitting 100 mph on a fastball in the ninth. Before last week’s outing where he surrendered six runs in an inning to the Colorado Rockies, Medina’s ERA had held around 3.00, though that has inflated to over 4.50.
“We’re looking for consistency, and I think that’s his biggest challenge right now,” Kotsay said of Medina. “The last hitter of the game is my expectations of how he should throw the ball from pitch one — 100 mph fastball to get to two strikes, a 90 mph split. If you watch the replay, it’s probably the nastiest split throw in the season. That’s who he can be.”
While the A’s largely struggled against Pirates starter Braxton Ashcraft — who improved to 6-3 and a season ERA of 3.18 after throwing six innings while surrendering one earned run — there were some bright spots offensively.
Bolte homered in the bottom of the seventh and nearly did so again in the ninth; Gelof’s bottom-of-the-ninth-inning four-bagger extended his MLB-best hitting streak to 21 games; and catcher Jonah Heim got on base in his first three at-bats of the game, hitting two singles.
Some of the A’s star hitters struggled, with first baseman Nick Kurtz striking out three times, though he did single and score a run in the sixth. Outfielder Lawrence Butler struck out swinging in all four of his at-bats.
“Anytime we get behind offensively against a good arm, it’s tough to get back into the game,” Kotsay said. “I was proud of the guys for putting a rally together there, getting a couple runs. We just couldn’t hold it there with the bullpen tonight.”
Pride Night at Sutter Health Park
The A’s celebrated Glenn Burke Pride Night on Wednesday. The late Burke, who played the last two seasons of his career for the Oakland A’s in 1978 and 1979, came out as gay in 1982 after retiring, becoming the first former Major League Baseball Player to do so.
The A’s did not wear alternate uniforms or hats specific to Pride night, though Sutter Health Park on its scoreboard display showed a message reading “Welcome to Pride Night” against a rainbow backdrop. Sacramento LGBT Community Center’s chief operating officer, Francesca Slater, also threw out the ceremonial first pitch before the game.
What’s next for A’s?
Next up for the A’s is a four-game series against their American League West foes, the Los Angeles Angels (30-45), at Sutter Health Park.
Thursday’s game starts at 6:40 p.m., with electric lefty Gage Jump expected to toe the rubber for the A’s.
Read more Legislature keeps ‘hand grenade’ corporate tax proposal alive for next governor
This story was originally published June 17, 2026 at 11:03 PM.