It’s fun to see a walk off but let’s not forget that the A’s were not only outmatched on Friday by the score of 9-2, but they also began their first trips to the plate yesterday down 5-0. Yes, they clawed back into it but this is the Chicago White Sox we’re talking about. That should be expected. Not to mention they had the bases loaded in the bottom of the 10th with one out and couldn’t make anything happen. Thankfully Jack Perkins had “prove it” written across his forehead and the A’s were able to march into the 11th with the score still knotted at six. The bottom of the lineup played hero once again, the A’s continue to be tied with the Rangers for the division lead, and yet I still can’t shake the feeling that history is going to repeat itself. May is just right around the corner and we’ve been here before. We’ve been excited about the showings of this A’s core in the early goings, we’ve even seen an exciting A’s walk off against the White Sox for the second straight season. But what lies ahead? Can the A’s bullpen, one held together by bubble gum, stay fresh? Will Joel Kuhnel be the next Ryan Cook or the next Ryan Dull? And what do we do with Luis Severino? Even he can’t point a finger at the friendly confines of Sutter Heath Park, as his overall performance compared to last season has been remarkably off-kilter.
Maybe some much needed time in the “Luis Severino room” will help him figure out what the hell is going on.
Another walk off today will not be acceptable. It’s Jeffrey Springs Sunday and I expect nothing but a win by five or more runs. Momentum is a tricky thing in baseball. It doesn’t always translate series to series but we might as well enter next week’s road series against Seattle with a little mustard on the hot dog. In fact, the next six games are against both the Mariners and the Rangers – – two teams with postseason pedigree in recent years, that the A’s need to prove they can hang with on a consistent basis.
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Here’s the lineup behind Springs…
Some shuffling has been done by Mark Kotsay. Andy Ibanez batting cleanup and Zack Gelof in right field are interesting picks. I thought maybe Kotsay was playing he Ibanez card based off of his history against the White Sox’s stater, going back to his days as a Tiger, but it turns out this is Noah Schultz’s second big league start. What does Kotsay know here that we don’t? Based off of some of his bullpen choices, some might argue very few. The decision to only roll with one lefty in the pen still baffles me. However, he did it make it up by putting our secret weapon into the mix yesterday.
Looking forward to seeing how this version of the lineup fares against the Whit Sox and their young lefty. In Schultz’s big league debut against the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday, he tossed 4.1 innings, gave up 3 ER on 3 hits, while giving up a walk for every strikeout recorded (4). Not a dazzling performance by any means, but there’s a lot of buzz around the kid and the A’s have been guilty of giving up Chase Dollander’s to guys like these.
Beware of the “powa” provided by Munetaka Murakami. I’d say that the lefty-lefty match between him and Springs is favorable but we also saw what he did to Hogan Harris yesterday on a CHECK SWING.
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That being said, Hogan Harris is no Jeffrey Springs. The A’s starter has been absolutely brilliant to begin the season, including a start at home against the Astros where he shoved for seven frames. Last year against the White Sox, at home, Springs did struggle through the early innings, This is something to be mindful of as we enter today’s play.
Just having a clean first inning this series would be nice. Six runs total have been given up against the White Sox in the first inning of the first two games. Here’s to the A’s changing that tune, as they go for the series win against the Southsiders!
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