The Oakland Athletics lost to the Seattle Mariners on Monday night 5-0 as their dreadful season continued, but rookie speedster Esteury Ruiz recorded a nice accomplishment on the basepaths.
The following update comes from the Rotowire fantasy baseball portal:
Ruiz went 1-for-2 with two stolen bases in Monday's 5-0 loss to the Mariners.
ANALYSIS
Ruiz didn't start the game, but he entered as a pinch hitter and made some noise on the basepaths. The two steals gave him 61 on the year, the most by an American League player since Juan Pierre swiped 68 in 2010. Ruiz has notched eight thefts in September despite somewhat limited playing time. Over 121 contests this season, he's added a .250/.304/.338 slash line, four home runs, 42 RBI and 44 runs scored.
Pierre was playing for the Chicago White Sox at the time and was one of the most significant base stealers of his era, so to be paired with him as a runner is a nice accomplishment for Ruiz.
Ruiz will have a chance over the final two weeks of the season to break that mark. It would be interesting to see how many steals that Ruiz would have if he hadn't spent time on the injured list this year. He's second to only Ronald Acuna Jr. (66) in stolen bases as is this year.
He's in his first year in Oakland after being acquired this past offseason in a trade with the Milwaukee Brewers.
The A's will host the Mariners again on Tuesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 9:40 p.m. ET.
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