‘We miss the old A’s.’ Fans share disappointment amid worst skid in decades
Sara Ashwood traveled roughly 500 miles from Las Vegas to watch her favorite team play at Sutter Health Park on Tuesday night.
While Ashwood was visiting the temporary home of the Athletics — who are in the first of a three-year stint in West Sacramento after leaving Oakland — and her hometown is the planned destination of the A’s team come 2028, she was supporting the Minnesota Twins and rocking the merch to boot.
Ashwood said she will become a fan when the A’s move to Vegas. But for now, when asked whether she was worried about her team facing the skidding A’s — who had lost 18 of their last 19 games coming into Tuesday — her answer was simple: “Not really.”
But according to lifelong A’s fan Francois Jones, 30, “If you’re not an A’s fan, you don’t count, you don’t matter.” And, for at least some die-hards, the rough patch hasn’t dispelled confidence. Jones also said he is still very confident in the team’s playoff chances.
Unfortunately for Jones, the hope was misplaced, at least on Tuesday, as an offensive outburst in the sixth and seventh innings propelled the Twins (33-27) to a 10-3 win over the A’s, whose recent stretch is the worst for the franchise in decades.
The A’s (23-39) would be the MLB team with the 10th-worst record through 50 games to make the wild card round of the playoffs, according to a 2024 MLB.com report that looked at every year since 1995. The team held a 22-28 record at the time.
In the 12 games since, the team has gone 1-11, making the bid even more unlikely.
“This season has been a roller coaster of emotions. It started off good and then we started doing something that just messed everything up,” Jones said. “We’re gonna do better this season.”
What’s the problem?
While the offense hasn’t been perfect lately, especially in the clutch — the team hit a combined .194 with runners in scoring position in its 19 games leading up to Tuesday — pitching has been a particularly sore spot.
A’s pitchers combined for an 8.19 ERA on the squad’s 1-18 stretch leading up to Tuesday — the worst record an A’s team has had over a 19-game stretch since 1943. The loss on Tuesday put the A’s one step closer to the 1-24 record the 1943 team had, lasting through most of that August.
The pitching staff’s 6.88 ERA in May was the highest in the MLB by just under a run and the fourth highest for a month-long period in franchise history. The 56 home runs it surrendered was the second most in a month in MLB history that included most of a 14-game streak where the opposition had at least one four-bagger which was snapped on Monday.
Starting pitchers are 0-12 during the 1-19 run, the sixth longest winless streak in franchise history. An opener and an early A’s lead saved the record from worsening Tuesday.
None of the team’s three starters with more than 60 innings pitched — Luis Severino, JP Sears or Jeffrey Springs — have an ERA better than 4.50. League average is roughly 4.00.
Severino, who signed a three-year $67 million contract in December that included the highest guaranteed payout in franchise history, has struggled all season, especially at Sutter Health Park. The two-time All Star currently has a 1-5 record and has been unable to provide the spark the team was looking for.
Severino surrendered eight of the 10 runs the Twins scored en route to victory in the first game of the series on Monday — the fifth in an active six-game streak where opponents have scored at least eight runs, the A’s longest such streak in the last 41 years.
The bullpen has also struggled, including nine blown saves and a 8.69 ERA in the 25 games leading up to Tuesday.
Even star closer Mason Miller hasn’t been at peak form thus far. Miller, an All-Star last season who came fourth in Rookie of the Year voting and pitched to a stellar 2.49 ERA, is currently sitting at a 5.49 ERA with 12 saves. While a 2.98 fielding independent pitching gives reason to hope for a bounce-back, the rest of the pen will need to step up as well.
As a whole, the team’s relievers lead the league in walks with 131 and has the second most blown saves with 13.
Missing Oakland
Owen Scarborough, 14, has been an A’s fan his whole life and fondly remembers driving to Oakland with his father to attend ballgames at the Oakland Coliseum since he was 3 years old. Scarborough said he was upset by the team’s recent play and felt the team needed a spark of energy.
“We miss the old A’s and I’m upset with the ownership, as everybody is … We shouldn’t have had to leave Oakland,” Scarborough said. “The Coliseum, it had its own spirit, it was loud, it was rowdy, it was dirty, but it was fun.
“You don’t get that here.”
James Hunt, 38, has been an A’s fan his whole life and began frequenting the Coliseum around 20 years ago despite living in Woodland. While the team’s new location is much more accessible for Hunt, he said the atmosphere at Sutter Health Park, which has a maximum capacity of roughly 50,000 less than the Coliseum, is significantly worse.
“It for sure doesn’t feel like Oakland. The chanting, like people knowing the players, just that home team feel — it doesn’t feel like it’s here,” Hunt said. “I don’t know that I’ll ever make it to a Vegas game, so I hope they can be competitive (while in West Sacramento). So if they can, that’s great.”
On Tuesday, crowd engagement was mixed. Early-game chants prompted by the scoreboard were hardly followed but key plays like Tyler Soderstrom’s triple with one out in the third inning and Denzel Clarke stretching a single to center into a double with two outs in the second inning, led to big crowd reactions.
However, a Willi Castro home run in the fourth inning — his first of two on the night — inspired hearty cheers from Twins supporters, overpowering the home crowd’s boos.
Hunt said he doesn’t think A’s ownership will make any major moves to improve the team as they look towards Las Vegas, but said he will continue to support his favorite team no matter what the season brings.
“I went to Oakland games when they were giving tickets away for 5, 10 bucks. I drove all the way down there to watch them because they’re my team,” Hunt said. “If you’re a true fan, you stick with your team. No matter what.”
Die-hards still have hope
When Ron Giles, 84, was growing up in San Francisco, the city didn’t yet have its own team. The A’s were the local team and now, for the lifelong A’s fan who currently lives in Sacramento, they are again.
The season ticket holder attends as many games as he can with his wife and said clutch hitting and pitching are two areas the team could improve. Despite the recent slide, Giles said he has never questioned his A’s fandom and will continue to support the team.
“My wife loves to come out here in person, she don’t care about TV. If they win, fine, if they don’t, I will go to the next one,” Giles said. “More than likely they’re just in a slump, and sooner or later, it’s gonna come out. We just have hopes.”
Giles recalled previous dominant A’s rosters such as the 1972-74 squads, including legends like Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers, that earned three straight World Series victories. He advised the team to find a clear leader like the legends of the past.
“It reminds me of the Oakland Raiders. They put together a team that is fieldable, but they’re going down in the low end of it, and any good players, eventually, they trade them off,” Giles said. “Get some hitters, get some pitchers. That’s my advice.”
Trevor Robinson, 27, attended the game with his 6-year-old son James Williams to pass down the A’s fandom. Robinson, a Sacramento native, recalled going to A’s games in Oakland with his father and said he was happy to get the chance to do the same with his son.
“What a blast,” he said.
