WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Willie MacIver hit a go-ahead single in the eighth inning of his major league debut. Minutes later, the 28-year-old catcher threw out a runner trying to steal second for the final out that ended the Athletics’ 11-game losing streak.
“I woke up hoping for a Gatorade bath at the end of the game and, man, I’ve never felt such a good feeling with such cold water,” he said after the A’s beat Philadelphia 5-4 on Sunday and stopped the Phillies’ nine-game win streak.
MacIver was among five players brought up from the minors on Friday. He started Sunday in place of Shea Langeliers in the day game after a night game.
“This is part of the talk that we had in spring training, it was going to take the whole army that was in the room,” said manager Mark Kotsay, who watched the end from the clubhouse following his first ejection this season.
MacIver, hitting .389 with two homers and 30 RBIs at Triple-A Las Vegas, grounded out in the second and fourth against Jesús Luzardo, then struck out in the sixth.
After Trea Turner homered in the eighth off Hogan Harris for a 4-3 lead, another Friday call-ups sparked the rally.
Logan Davidson walked and scored on Lawrence Butler’s triple against Matt Strahm. MacIver fouled off a fastball, then drove a cutter into center field to bring home the go-ahead run.
“I’m always upset about walks,” Strahm said. “I just feel like I’ve had too many too close together.”
A day after blowing a ninth-inning lead, Mason Miller allowed a two-out single in the ninth to Alec Bohm. Johan Rojas pinch ran and MacIver, who had been in the minors since 2018, threw to shortstop Jacob Wilson, who tagged the sliding Rojas on an elbow.
“I had family here, friends, teammates, ex-teammates,” MacIver said. “It’s a dream come true. I can’t even put it into words.”
Rojas at 29.9 feet per second has the fifth-highest sprint speed in the majors among players with 10 or more opportunities, according to Statcast.
MacIver was selected by Colorado in the ninth round of the 2018 amateur draft from the University of Washington. He played in the 2021 Futures Game with Bobby Witt Jr., Julio Rodríguez and Spencer Torkelson.
MacIver became a minor league free agent last November and signed a minor league contract with the Athletics a month later.
“I’m so grateful for my family and for my support system,” he said. “They’ve been everything to me and I obviously wouldn’t be here without them and like I can’t thank them enough. … The fact that they could be here and see my first hit and how that game ended, man, it’s awesome.”
Davidson started at first a day after Nick Kurtz left the game because of a left hip issue. He had two hits and two RBIs a day after a forgettable debut.
Davidson entered as a pinch runner for Kurtz in the 10th inning. He was thrown out at the plate, called for obstruction and ended a 9-6 loss by striking out.
“There’s a lot of confidence that I have in this kid,” Kotsay said. “I’ve invested a lot of time, we’ve had a lot of conversations through the last two seasons about what it was going to take for him to be a big leaguer and he has not backed down from anything that I’ve given him and to see the reward come today and just his first start and contributing and having such an impact to the win, was awesome.”
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