A’s historic futility continues as pitching staff matches record set in 1936
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- A’s pitchers allowed 8 or more runs in six straight games, tying 1936 franchise record.
- Team dropped 19 of last 20 games, including an eighth consecutive loss Tuesday.
- Manager Mark Kotsay tested opener strategy rather than traditional starting pitcher.
Athletics manager Mark Kotsay has continued to search for answers to cure what ails the Athletics during their historically bad run of losing in West Sacramento.
Those answers didn’t come Tuesday as he tried to use an “opener” instead of a true starter on the mound against the Twins, and the A’s got dealt their eighth straight loss and dropped the 19th of their last 20.
They fell 10-3 in front of the smallest crowd to attend a game at Sutter Health Park this season, with attendance reported 8,487 fans watched.
“You try to just separate the day, and move on,” Kotsay said of trying to get over the run of losses. “Unless you’ve played 162 games in a season, and you’ve shown up every day to this job, you don’t understand how hard it is mentally and how difficult it is physically. We all go through it, but especially when it’s not good, you try to flush that.”
The A’s hit their pillows Tuesday night trying to flush their worst stretch of baseball since the franchise played in Philadelphia in 1943 — nearly 82 years ago.
It’s a particularly jarring stretch given the A’s are two years removed from a 112-loss season in Oakland — and they’ve brought similar futility to their new home in the capital region despite having much higher expectations.
“For me personally, I don’t really take anything from baseball home,” said A’s pitcher Jacob Lopez, who was tagged with the loss. “We’re all working our butts off to try to snap out of this, but I think you got to have two separate lives.”
Lopez struck out a career-high nine hitters, but also allowed three home runs en route to five total runs over 4.1 innings. He was the first pitcher out of the bullpen after reliever Grant Holman started the game. Kotsay and the A’s hoped going with an opener instead of a traditional starter might help get key relievers into less stressful situations and back into form.
Holman didn’t allow a run after giving up a pair in each of his previous two outings in Toronto. Lopez had been used as a starter previously, but allowed seven runs in 1 2/3 innings last Thursday.
Kotsay said the A’s might continue to use openers in certain games moving forward. The A’s have not announced their probable starters for Wednesday and Thursday’s games.
Worst pitching stretch in almost a century?
The A’s with Tuesday’s result have allowed more than eight runs in six straight games, tying the longest single-season streak in franchise history from June 24 to July 1, 1936, nearly 89 years ago. They came into the game with the highest ERA in the majors before allowing 10 earned runs to Minnesota.
The A’s had a 2-0 lead before the Twins scored on the first of Will Castro’s two home runs in the fourth inning, before Minnesota plated four runs in the sixth and seventh. It was Castro’s third-career multi-home run game.
The loss meant the A’s will have gone at least nine series without winning one. The loss Tuesday ensured no better than a split of a four-game set before the teams play against Wednesday and Thursday.
Rookie shortstop Jacob Wilson missed the game with a neck injury. He was named the American League Rookie of the Month for May before Tuesday’s game after posting .368/.437/.538 splits with four home runs and 16 RBIs. Wilson said before the game he expected to be available for Wednesday’s game.
