Last Year's Struggles Have Carried Over to 2020 for Athletics DH Davis
The A’s have played 12 percent of their season and DH Khris Davis still doesn’t have a hit.
More than that, the A’s 8-3 loss to Colorado might have had a different look if Davis hadn’t come to the plate with nine men on base gotten the hit he yearns for. Not only did he fail to drive any of them in, he didn’t advance a runner.
He’s played in four of the A’s five games and is 0-for-15.
“He’s pressing,” manager Bob Melvin said. “If you watch his BP, it’s good, but it’s got to transfer to the game, so it’s a little bit of a struggle for him right now and he’s kind of going through a tough stretch.”
In a 162-game season that would be an ordeal, but at least there would be another 157 games to get back up off the carpet. There are just 55 games left in this oddest-of-all-seasons, and as Melvin has said in the past, slow starts are tough to deal with.
“Well, you know, a longer leash can be a little bit shorter when you struggle (in a) 60 games (season),” Melvin said. “It’s like being in August right now, so you know some of the guys who have track records deserve a bit of a longer leash.”
Does that mean that Wednesday’s series finale will see Davis on the bench? Melvin wasn’t going there.
”But you know he’s been really good for us over the years,” the manager said. “He just had a tough time the second half of last year and he’s gotten off to a tough start this year.”
From June 27 through the end of last year Davis battled injuries and hit just .188. The defending American League home run champion hit just seven homers in his final 66 games.
Davis came up in the first inning with two out and the bases loaded and popped out. In the third, he struck out with two men on. In the fifth, again batting with two on, he grounded into a double play. And in the eighth, with another two aboard, he again struck out.
Tuesday didn’t have much going for it from the A’s point of view save for the Major League debut of right-handed pitcher Jordan Weems. He took over for starter Daniel Mengden in the fifth inning, allowed two runs in the fifth, then settled in and retired the final eight men he faced in order. Not bad for a kid who grew up as a catcher and didn’t make the conversion to pitching until the middle of the 2016 minor league season.
“It was a bit of a tough start, but he finished up well,” Melvin said. “He threw with high velocity, showed control and had a breaking pitch. He threw the ball pretty well and finished up strong, but overall, our pitching numbers weren’t great today.”
Mengden was being asked to go five innings. He made it four, and it wasn’t always pretty. He put runners in scoring position in the first and second without allowing a run, but in the third a Nolan Arenado sacrifice fly gave Colorado the lead. Mark Canha tied the game in the bottom of the inning and Davis could have given Oakland a much-needed boost, but with men at first and second and the scored tied, he fanned.
Mengden could have used the boost, because Sam Hilliard hit a two-run homer in the fourth, and the Rockies never trailed.
Enter Weems for his big-league debut.
“To say that it’s everything you dreamed of would not be the correct words,” Weems said. “When you’re little and dreaming of being in the big leagues, you’re thinking of a crowded stadium, you know, everybody screaming. You have to go out there and zone all that stuff out.
“To start it all off with a K (of Colorado shortstop Trevor Story), that’s kind of awesome.”
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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