MidValleySports.Com

By Tim Byrnes

Deja Vu? Nah, deja vu can be a good thing.

More like flashbacks!

That’s it, Mark Kotsay is giving Athletics fans flashbacks to the 1-20 stretch earlier this season.

After the underwhelming sweep by the Texas Rangers, the A’s travelled to St. Louis to play the Cardinals and the series started off in the right direction.

Five doubles and three home runs in the 11-3 win in the opener, made it look like the A’s were back on track, but then Kotsay went back to his old ways.

Questionable lineup arrangements and strange pitch count limitations stifled the rest of the series and the A’s took a pair of losses: 2-1, and 5-1.

Athletics Batting:
High expectations were set for OF JJ Bleday and 2B Zack Gelof after they combined for 106 extra-base-hits in 2024 but they have failed to live up to the expectations.

Both have struggled to remain on the big league roster this season but started this series on fire.

In the first two games, they combined for three doubles, three home runs while batting .437.

Here is where Kotsay began his odd decisions.
After scoring four runs and three rbi’s in those two games, Kotsay decided to sit Bleday in the finale.

The man hasn’t hit his stride but once all season, and Kotsay sits him. Every man on the bench hit in the finale but him.

Gelof did play the last game and went back to doing what got him demoted in the first place; strikeouts.

With three strikeouts in four at-bats, Gelof is whiffing 50% (31 k’s/62 ab’s) of the time, on the year.

First baseman Nick Kurtz returned from his oblique strain and hit his 24th double, and his 28th home run but Kotsay batted him leadoff in his first game back.

When Jacob Wilson (.315) was sidelined with injury, it made sense to bat Kurtz leadoff, with his ob% but Wilson was in the lineup.

Having Kurtz at leadoff with his slugging %, with Wilson batting behind him just didn’t make sense.

In fact there was a different leadoff hitter in every game, which seems odd with 140+ games played.

Most managers have a general lineup set pretty quickly while the A’s never seemed to quite get there.

The toying with the lineup hasn’t panned out for the A’s skipper, and he has sat guys in the middle of hot streaks all season.

Designated hitter Brent Rooker hit three doubles for the series and 1b Tyler Soderstrom had hits in every game but it felt like a padded stats series, with runs being piled up in only one game, and uninspired indifference the rest of the series.

This 1-5 streak feels like the 1-20 streak and with 21 games left, sitting players in the midst of streaks is counterproductive.

Some players should play every day, in spite of the pitcher being right or left-handed and he seems to delve too deep in the numbers and ignoring how hitting streaks need to be played out. It stifles player progress.

Being possibly the best college baseball player in history, Kotsay should know this.

Athletics Pitching:
Luis Morales (3-0) is looking like the real deal. He had eight strikeouts and only gave up two runs in the opening game win.

Luis Severino returned from the IL and went 5 innings of three hit, scoreless ball but was pulled at 61 pitches. He was in full control and had no rough innings so it was on Kotsay for pulling him early. Relievers gave up a walk and a home run to lose 2-1.

Jeffrey Springs was also in control of the finale, but was pulled at 87 pitches after giving up only two runs.

Again, relievers issued walks and a home run to lose 5-1.
What is the benefit of limiting pitch counts now?

Upcoming Series:
The LA Angels (66-74) are 8-2 versus the Athletics this season, but the A’s (64-77) took 2-of-3 in the last meeting.

Rookie RHP Mason Barnett (0-1, 11.25) makes his second pro start against

RHP Jose Soriano (10-9, 3.68).

GameTime:
Sept 5, 2025 638pm
Angel Stadium
Anaheim, Ca