After Getting Crushed By Astros, Kotsay Doesn't Hold Back
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There weren't a ton of positives to take away from the A's 11-0 loss to the Houston Astros on Saturday afternoon, and with higher expectations this season, there is only so much underperformance that will be tolerated.
After the game, A's manager was not happy with the team's pitching performance on the afternoon, which began with starter Luis Morales lasting just three innings, and giving up eight hits, five earned runs, walking six and failing to record a strikeout.
The Astros bats were on his fastball—and all of his pitches, really—as the young righty generated just one whiff on 28 swings. His called strike plus whiff rate was just 14% (11-of-77 pitches), which means he was consistently outside of the zone (six walks) and getting hit around pretty well.
Mark Kotsay not thrilled with the walks
"We didn't do anything well today. That game was reflective of, in my opinion, past performances that we feel like we have put behind us, and we need to put behind us as a team. For Morales today, it looked like they were on him early. He shied away from the zone. Six walks I think, and a hit batter. Obviously 13 walks in the game.
"This is not reflective of the expectation level of our staff right now. We talk about beating ourselves all the time. Today, we completely beat ourselves."
The A's manager is typically not this direct when talking about a specific issue, which could be telling with how long of a leash Morales will have moving forward. He had a nice stint in the big leagues last season, posting a 3.14 ERA across 48 2/3 innings, but his FIP was also 4.68 along with a .233 BABIP, which suggests a little luck in that initial ERA.
His results this season haven't been great, as he has provided just 7 1/3 innings this season, giving up 13 hits, 10 earned runs, four home runs, walked eight and struck out five. This could be a situation where he gets a minute in Triple-A to reset, because the A's need innings from their starters, and they need guys that can stay in the zone.
Last year Joey Estes was sent down after his first two starts of the season, so the A's, with their expectations for the season, have been quick to pull the trigger on a move in the recent past.
Luis Medina needs to "grow up and get past that"
While the overall outing was a positive one as he continues to build up in his new role in the bullpen, there was one key factor that his manager would like him to see move past in the near future.
"After he gave up the homer, I think he reverted back to the old self of the emotional response to giving up a homer, as he walked two guys. We're gonna have to grow up and get past that. We're gonna have to understand that you're gonna give up a home run. You get back on the mound, get back in the zone."
Medina was mowing down hitters early, giving up just a single in his first inning of work, and then striking out Christian Vázquez and Nick Allen to begin his second frame. That's when Cam Smith launched his solo home run, and Medina followed it up with a pair of walks to prolong the inning.
While he certainly wasn't pounding the zone in those two at-bats, pitch number three in the first AB after the home run could have certainly been challenged in a tighter game (or if the A's had more challenges) and would have been overturned. It also may have just added another pitch or two to an eventual walk.
In the second at-bat, the third pitch was challenged by Houston and overturned from a strike to a ball, so he was in and around the zone a lot more in that AB.
Overall, he was effective in the game and ended up with the second-most whiffs (9) in the contest despite only working a pair of innings.
Coming into this game, the A's team ERA sat at 4.28, which ranked them No. 18. That's right in the realm that they'll want to be at this season in order to have a shot at contending throughout the year. The trouble for them so far has been that the offense isn't scoring them runs on a consistent basis.
The bats have erupted for seven runs (extra inning loss) and 11 runs (home opener), but otherwise have been held largely in check this season. They put up five in their win over Atlanta, but in the other five games they have totaled just five runs, getting shut out twice in the process. They're 0-5 in those games, bringing them to 2-6 overall.
It doesn't matter how the A's are pitching if they're getting held down offensively like this on a routine basis. The bats are too good to be held down much longer, and they're going to have to win this team some games over the course of the season. The hope here is that they don't wait too long to wake up.
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Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.
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