By Tim Byrnes
Happy 4th of July America!
The Athletics received an amazing gift to celebrate along with the founding of our Country.
A’s rookie SS Jacob Wilson spent the first half of the 2025 with a batting average hovering around .370. He has settled into the second best batting average (.339), and has the second most hits in MLB (108).
Wilson has parlayed the hot start into over 1.1 million All-Star votes, over 250,000 more than superstar Bobby Witt Jr.
With that he became the first fan-elected rookie shortstop to start an All-Star Game…EVER!
Not Jeter.
Not Ripken.
Not Nomar.
JACOB WILSON!
A’s fans continue to call for the Athletics to extend this talent and make him a face of A’s baseball well into their Las Vegas tenure.
The A’s took 2-of-3 games versus the Tampa Bay Rays and while winning the series is great, the A’s had a shot at a sweep.
Rarely a series goes by that there isn’t strange personnel decisions by manager Mark Kotsay and this series was no different.
Benching players with hot bats and constantly moving players out of their normal position has been a reoccurring theme.
Athletics Batting:
After only ten extra-base hits (xbh) in the last three series, eight A’s players had at least one xbh in the series and 11 for the three game set.
In spite of being sat in the finale, C Shea Langeliers led the A’s with his bat and defense.
After being activated June 30th, off the 10-day IL, Langeliers quickly got back to work.
In his first at-bat he hit a 408 ft three run home run in game one, and followed that with a double and home run (12), in the second game of the series.
Despite adding three runs, and four rbi’s Kotsay chose to sit the hot bat.
It makes sense to sit a catcher coming off IL when he caught a game the night before a morning start but you have to DH that bat!
The same happened to RF Lawrence Butler with Kotsay sitting a hot bat. Butler hit .400 for the series but was sat for the start of the finale as the leadoff hitter.
In his place was Denzel Clarke and while a human highlight reel at center field, the man cannot stay above .200.
Clarke was on a 0-for-9 streak at the time, and with his high strikeout propensity and having the 17th best OB% on the team, it was an odd and unnecessary switch.
Third baseman Max Muncy continues with his rising batting average while riding a five game hitting streak.
Designated Hitter Brent Rooker continues to hit for power, adding a double, and a four-bagger while hitting safely in five of the last six games.
His drawback in the series seems to be a teamwide issue when he struck out seven times in twelve at-bats.
As a team, the A’s struck out 41 times in the series, with rookie 1B Nick Kurtz the biggest culprit.
He fanned eight times in his 10 at-bats and went hitless for the series to experience his first slump in the big leagues.
Pitchers may have picked up on his approach and his swing & miss has become high with inside breaking balls.
Athletics Pitching:
While the starters were hammered for two doubles and six home runs in 13 2/3 innings, four were solo shots and they gave up little else.
Former starter JT Ginn pitched 3 2/3 of hitless baseball to bail out game one starter Jacob Wilson.
Lopez had retired the first ten batters of the game when the wheels fell off and, surprisingly, Kotsay didn’t leave him to die on the mound like so many pitchers before him this season.
In the game, the trio of relievers Michael Kelly, Sean Newcomb, and closer Mason Miller combined for two scoreless innings with Newcomb (2-4) taking the win and Miller getting the save.
Given the low pitch count (17), the same trio were used in game two and again they held the Rays scoreless in 3 2/3 innings.
This time Kelly (2-0) took the win while Miller notched his second save (17) in as many days.
Miller is looking more like his “REAPER” persona as his velocity increases. He is regularly clocking 102-103 on the gun which allows his slow slider to freeze hitters.
Upcoming Series:
The Athletics (36-53) return to West Sacramento after a 4-5 roadtrip, to take on their former “Battle of the Bay” opponents, the San Francisco Giants (45-41).
The Giants will take I-80 eastward carrying a four game losing streak and only three wins in the last ten games.
The Athletics send RHP JP Sears (6-7, 5.09) to the mound coming off a combined two-hit shutout of the Yankees.
He will be opposed by first ballot Hall of Fame RHP Justin Verlander (0-5, 4.26) who can be unhittable on any given day.
While acknowledging his recent struggles, the man has three no-hitters (2007, 2011, 2019) and cannot be overlooked with a 262-152 lifetime record across an eye opening 22 seasons.
AGAIN HAPPY BIRTHDAY USA!
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