What almost began as a leadoff home run turned into… a leadoff home run.

Lawrence Butler cracked the first pitch of the game to deep centerfield and while it missed being a traditional home run by mere feet, it did turn into an electric inside-the-park homer for the 24-year-old.

“To be honest, when I hit it I didn’t think I got it that good,” Butler told Jenny Cavnar and Dallas Braden on “A’s Cast” following the game. “But, I kind of looked at the right fielder and he was looking at the center fielder like he didn’t know where the ball was and I looked at the center fielder and he didn’t even move so I kind of was like ‘Maybe it’s a home run.’ And then I saw the ball hit the ground and bounce off and I was like ‘I gotta score.

“It was a crazy play, especially to start it off for the boys but hey we’ll take an inside-the-park any day. Home run. It’s the same in the books.”

But Butler wasn’t done. In the third inning, the man who reps “Zone 4” in his hometown of Atlanta crushed another ball against his hometown Braves – this time over the fence for his second home run of the game.

It was Butler’s first multi-home run game of the season, and it became the first time an Athletics player hit two home runs — with one of them being an inside-the-park homer — since Billy Williams did it in 1973.

Lawrence Butler is the first #Athletics📷 player with a multi-homer game in which he hit both an inside-the-park and a fence-clearing home run since Billy Williams on Aug. 23, 1975.

— Ryan M. Spaeder (@theaceofspaeder) July 9, 2025

“For Law, he’s the spark plug, really,” manager Mark Kotsay told reporters after the game. “He set the tone tonight with the first at-bat, got the energy going, excitement about that play. It’s always great to witness an inside-the-park home run. You saw him hit another gear, I think, when he saw the ball going towards right field. He had a great night, great at-bats.”

In all, the A’s cranked out five home runs with three coming in the first inning.

Brent Rooker and Max Muncy each added two-run homers to give the A’s a five-run lead after the first frame and they never looked back.

“It was a good game for the whole team, offensively and defensively,” Muncy told Chris Townsend and Steve Sax on “A’s Cast.” “Pitching was great, Springs and all the other guys. I think it was just a great all-around win.”

While that first inning had plenty of thrills for the A’s, there was a scary moment when Jacob Wilson was hit by a 97-mile-per-hour fastball from Braves rookie Didier Fuentes in his left hand. Luckily for the rookie, it was just diagnosed as a contusion.

“We did the X-rays,” Kotsay told reporters. “X-rays were negative which is a great sign. He did get squared up pretty good so he’ll probably most likely go day-to-day and well just evaluate him tomorrow.”

In the second inning, rookie Nick Kurtz decided he wanted to get in on the action, as well, and delivered his first-career grand slam — it was his 14th home run of the season and gave him a tie for most by a rookie this season with Agustin Ramirez of the Miami Marlins.

After three innings, the A’s lead was 10-0 and it would be more than enough for starting pitcher Jeffrey Springs, who went six strong innings while giving up six hits and one earned run.

Springs’ outing was his fourth straight outing of allowing two runs or fewer while going five or more innings. He has a 1.90 ERA over that span and boasts a 2-1 record for the team.

Mitch Spence will take the mound for the A’s on Wednesday when they square off with the Braves in the second game of the three-game set.