Jonah Heim’s pinch-hit home run sparks A’s 7-run rally, setting up Kurtz’s walk-off in the 10th vs. Angels

The Athletics needed one swing to avoid going quiet, and Jonah Heim provided it in the most immediate way possible. With Oakland down to its final out, Heim came off the bench for a pinch-hit appearance and launched a two-run home run to right field, tying the game before the night could slip away. It was the kind of moment that turns late-inning volatility into momentum, and it bought the A’s the time they needed to finish the job.

That equalizer mattered not only for the scoreboard but for the broader arc of the contest. According to MLB’s game recap, Oakland’s comeback reached seven runs at its peak, a multi-inning surge that flipped pressure onto the Los Angeles Angels as the game stretched toward extra innings. When the A’s can turn a deficit into a rally of that size, the leverage changes completely, because every new plate appearance becomes a referendum on whether the bullpen will crack or hold.

The dramatic context for Heim’s role was hard to miss. MLB noted that the setup was nearly a replay of his previous memorable pinch-hit appearance, when he went to bat for Lawrence Butler and launched a tying homer in an extra-inning game against the Brewers at Las Vegas Ballpark. In this game, Heim again found himself in the same pressure spot, coming off the bench with the Athletics nearly out of outs and delivering when the timing demanded it.

Extra innings then became the venue for the next swing. After Heim’s home run kept Oakland alive and allowed the A’s to carry their comeback into the later frames, the game continued through the 10th. There, MLB’s recap says Kurtz completed the sequence with a walk-off, giving Oakland the win immediately rather than forcing another half-inning to decide it.

For the Athletics, plays like Heim’s pinch-hit homer and the follow-through that ends the game in the 10th highlight a useful trait that often separates teams that can grind from teams that can only hope. The pinch-hit role is not always about sheer volume of opportunities, it is about timing and matchups, and Oakland’s late-in-game plan worked twice in a row. Even if the opposition makes adjustments after one big swing, the second act still requires the right bat at the right moment.

For the Angels, the loss serves as a reminder of how quickly late leads can collapse, particularly when a game stays close enough for one swing to rewrite innings of at-bats. Once Heim’s two-run homer tied the game, Los Angeles had to contend with the possibility that a comeback could keep going, not just that it might stall. The recap’s description of a seven-run Athletics rally suggests the issue was not merely a single missed chance, it was an extended stretch where momentum kept shifting.

Going forward, the next thing to watch is whether Oakland’s late-inning identity becomes more consistent, or whether this remains a pair of highly specific nights. Heim’s repeated effectiveness in late pinch situations, plus the ability to convert tied games into wins once extra innings begin, is the sort of pattern that can show up in team-building. For the Angels, the priority will be limiting the innings in which games unravel, especially once the lineup reaches the later stages and the leverage tightens.

In the meantime, the Athletics’ win gives them a clear takeaway from the night: a bench role can be a difference-maker, and a comeback does not end with the tying swing. Heim tied it with the season’s kind of late-bench punch, and Kurtz finished it, turning an almost-buried game into a walk-off in the 10th.