Jesus Aguilar's game-tying home run snaps own rare feat vs. Guardians

Aguilar snaps own rare feat with game-tying homer vs. Guardians originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea

Jesús Aguilar is competing with himself at this point.

After being down 4-1 in the bottom of the eighth inning on Wednesday, the Athletics first baseman stepped up to the plate against Cleveland Guardians reliever Tim Herrin with two outs and two runners on base.

And on the 12th pitch of the at-bat, Aguilar provided a late jolt with a three-run home run that tied the game.

The dozen pitches Aguilar saw were the most in a plate appearance that ended in a game-tying or go-ahead home run in the 8th inning or later in all of MLB since … well, Aguilar’s 13th-pitch walk-off home run on April 21, 2018. (h/t MLB’s Sarah Langs).

Aguilar went 2-for-5 with the three-run, 100.3-mph blast and a double, but the A’s fell to the Guardians in an extra-inning 6-4 loss at the Oakland Coliseum.

Still, A's manager Mark Kotsay was impressed with Aguilar's first home run with Oakland.

“It’s one of the better at-bats I’ve seen in a long time,” Kotsay told reporters after the game. “That’s incredible. You could just tell he was getting more locked in on each pitch. Got us back in the game on one swing. It was a great at-bat.”

Aguilar, though, wasn't as pleased.

“It doesn’t matter,” Aguilar said. “We didn’t win, so I don’t care. It was good, but it wasn’t enough. It’s not about me. It’s about winning games as a team, which, hopefully, we can start to do. It’s not about one player. It’s teamwork. If we want to start winning more games, we have to play as a collective team and start to do better things.”

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That's the kind of attitude and leadership the A's need this season with a relatively young and rebuilding team.