Athletics rally late, snap 11-game road losing streak by beating Diamondbacks 9-4

PHOENIX (AP) — Zack Gelof tripled to key a three-run eighth and the Oakland Athletics snapped a five-game losing streak, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 9-4 on Friday night.

The A’s also halted an 11-game road losing streak. They hadn’t won away from home since June 1 in Atlanta and had lost 15 of their previous 18 games overall.

“Overall it was a great game," A's manager Mark Kotsay said. "We’ve hit a lot of home runs as an offense, but we haven’t built innings that way; walks, couple hits, it’s nice to see.”

Gelof was 3 for 4 with the RBI triple, a walk and a stolen base.

“The month of June has been a lot better for him and he’s finishing up really strongly," Kotsay said.

Gelof's average went from .196 to .205 on Friday. He hit .267 with 14 homers as a rookie second baseman last season, but has found it tougher in his second year.

“All around we put it together,” he said. "It just feels good to win on the road.”

Tyler Soderstrom’s home run off Ryan Thompson (3-3) leading off the eighth tied it at 4. Thompson then walked rookie Armando Alvarez before Gelof hit a line drive to the gap in right-center, scoring the go-ahead run. Max Schuemann followed by chopping a single over the head of shortstop Geraldo Perdomo to make it 6-4.

The A's hit three homers in the ninth off Brandon Hughes to put it out of reach. Brent Rooker and Shea Langeliers went back-to-back, each for their 15th homers, of the season and Daz Cameron hit his third.

Scott Alexander (1-2) gave up a tie-breaking single to Ketel Marte in the seventh, but picked up the victory. Mason Miller, in a non-save situation, struck out two in the ninth to preserve the win.

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit his 11th homer leading off the sixth for Arizona off JP Sears.

Arizona has lost three straight and is 1-3 on its homestand.

Diamondbacks starter Slade Cecconi threw 88 pitches in four innings, allowing three runs. He struck out seven and walked two.

“We’ve got to pitch better,” Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo said. “You can’t make assumptions because the Oakland A’s are here that we’re going to beat them three games. That’s a well-run team, they got a good manager with young players that are very enthusiastic.”

Sears went six innings for Oakland, allowing five hits and three runs. Only two hits came after the first inning; he walked one and struck out six.

Sears bounced back from his previous start against Minnesota, in which he pitched just 1 1/3 innings, giving up nine hits and eight runs and hitting three batters.

Before the game, Arizona called up RHP Humberto Castellanos from Triple-A Reno and sent down RHP Scott McGough.

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Lovullo said after the game that RHP Zac Gallen will be activated from the injured list. Gallen (5-4, 3.12 ERA) has been sidelined with a right hamstring strain since he left one batter into a May 30 start against the New York Mets. Oakland’s starter will be LHP Hogan Harris (1-1, 2.72).

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Arizona Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte, left, scores ahead of a tag by Oakland Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers, right, during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, June 28, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Arizona Diamondbacks' Lourdes Gurriel Jr., left, scores as Oakland Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers, right, looks on for the baseball during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, June 28, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Arizona Diamondbacks starting pitcher Slade Cecconi throws against the Oakland Athletics during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, June 28, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Arizona Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte, right, celebrates his double as Oakland Athletics shortstop Max Schuemann (12) holds the ball during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, June 28, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Oakland Athletics starting pitcher JP Sears throws against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, June 28, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Arizona Diamondbacks' Ketel Marte, center, avoids Oakland Athletics catcher Shea Langeliers, right, to score as umpire Alex Tosi, left, moves during the play during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, June 28, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Oakland Athletics' Brent Rooker, right, connects for a run-scoring single as Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Tucker Barnhart, left, reaches for the ball during the third inning of a baseball game Friday, June 28, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Oakland Athletics' Zack Gelof (20) slaps hands with teammate Shea Langeliers (23) after scoring against the Arizona Diamondbacks during the third inning of a baseball game Friday, June 28, 2024, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Wall Street was set to kick off a holiday-shortened week with gains early Monday as markets digested an assortment of corporate news while waiting for a trove of labor market data.

Futures for the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average each rose about 0.2% before the bell.

Boeing shares were little changed after the aerospace giant announced that it was buying troubled supplier Spirit AeroSystems for $4.7 billion. Boeing hopes the deal, announced Sunday, will help it improve plane quality and safety amid increasing scrutiny from the government and the airlines who buy its planes. Boeing previously owned Spirit, and the purchase reverses a longtime company strategy of outsourcing key work on its passenger planes.

Elsewhere, European Union regulators accused social media company Meta Platforms of breaching the bloc’s new digital competition rulebook by forcing Facebook and Instagram users to choose between seeing ads or paying to avoid them. Meta, whose shares inched up less than 0.1% before the bell, began giving European users the option in November of paying for ad-free versions of Facebook and Instagram as a way to comply with the continent’s strict data privacy rules.

Online pet store Chewy jumped more than 11% in premarket after Keith Gill — also known as “Roaring Kitty,” the individual at the center of the of the meme stock craze — disclosed in an SEC filing that he is now the company's third-largest shareholder.

Later this week, the Labor Department will report on job openings, layoffs and the broader employment picture. Markets will be closed Thursday for the Fourth of July holiday.

Shares advanced on Monday in Europe, with the CAC benchmark in Paris up 1.6% at midday after the far-right National Rally gained a strong lead in first-round legislative elections.

Other European markets opened higher, while most Asian markets also gained.

The euro rose sharply before falling back to $1.0742 from $1.0744 as polling agencies suggested the National Rally might win a majority in the lower house of parliament. However the outcome remains uncertain and the voting system is complex.

Germany's DAX climbed 0.5% and in London, the FTSE 100 rose 0.4%.

In Asian trading, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 added 0.1% to 39,631.06 after a quarterly survey by the Bank of Japan, called the “tankan,” showed a modest improvement in confidence among the country’s largest manufacturers in April-June.

However the government downgraded its estimate for growth in the first quarter of the year, to a minus 2.9% annual rate from the earlier figure of minus 1.8%.

“Across all industries and firm sizes, business conditions held steady at 12, which is on past form consistent with (quarterly) GDP growth of around 0%,” Marcel Thieliant of Capital Economics said in assessing the tankan. “A renewed slowdown in GDP growth this quarter would be consistent with the slump in industrial production firms were predicting for June.”

The dollar surged further against the Japanese yen and was trading early Monday at 161.26 yen, up from 160.80 yen late Friday.

The Shanghai Composite climbed 0.9% to 2,994.73 after a survey of factory purchasing managers, reported over the weekend, showed conditions remained in contraction for a second straight month.

But a similar private-sector survey of manufacturing activity released Monday showed an improvement in business conditions. The Caixin Manufacturing PMI rose to 51.8 in June on a scale up to 100, compared with 51.7 in the previous month. Readings above 50 are considered to show an expansion.

Hong Kong markets were closed for a holiday.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.2% to 7,750.70. South Korea’s Kospi edged 0.2% higher to 2,804.31 after a private-sector survey showed South Korea’s factory activity was the best since April 2022.

In other dealings, benchmark U.S. crude rose 46 cents to $82 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, added 53 cents to $85.53 a barrel.

On Friday, a flurry of selling late in the day left the S&P 500 0.4% lower and in the red for the week. The Nasdaq composite fell 0.7%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%.

Despite the downbeat finish, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq remain near their all-time highs.

The S&P 500 gained 3.5% in June and is up about 14.5% so far this year. The Nasdaq gained about 6% for the month and is up 18.1% this year.

File - People pass the New York Stock Exchange on May 28, 2024, in New York. Global shares have advanced on Friday, June 28, 2024, as traders look ahead to a key report on inflation that could influence the Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File)

Currency traders watch their computer monitors near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rates at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A currency trader walks by the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Currency traders walk by the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at a foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)