What the A's Did Against Toronto Has Never Happened in MLB History

The Athletics have had a historic start to the 2026 season, but certainly not in the way they would've hoped for.

While Shea Langliers has been off to a hot start to the season, the same can't be said for the team as a whole. The A's have been striking out at a record pace, as they were rung up 50 times in the opening series against the Toronto Blue Jays.

The previous record in the modern era (post-1900) was held by the 2020 Detroit Tigers who struck out 46 times in their opening series against the Cincinnati Reds that season.

The Tigers went on to finish the season with the sixth-most strikeouts in baseball with 567 in the shortened 60-game season, but held the worst strikeout rate (27.3%). Their offense wasn't very good, so they just had fewer opportunities to strike out than some other teams.

To give the A's some credit, they faced three tough starting pitchers to begin the season. First, they were tasked with taking on the Blue Jays' ace Kevin Gausman who recorded 11 strikeouts in six innings of work.

The following afternoon, they faced the debuting Dylan Cease who was looking to impress in his first outing with Toronto. Cease picked up 12 strikeouts of his own in just 5 1/3 innings. Finally, they took on left-handed pitcher Eric Lauer who had nine strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings as well.

Early struggles for top guys

With that being said, it's clear something needs to change heading into their series with the Atlanta Braves. Brent Rooker leads the A's in strikeouts, with eight in 13 at bats.

The most concerning performance though so far has been the reigning AL Rookie of the Year, Nick Kurtz. Kurtz has seven strikeouts in nine at bats. Ironically though, he's also picked up four walks, so he's still getting on base at a .385 clip. It's been a strange start to his sophomore season to say the least, but he needs to find a way to start making contact, because that's how he does damage.

The strikeout struggles go all the way down the lineup though, with other key players like Tyler Soderstrom and Jacob Wilson striking out six times and five times respectively. Wilson struck out just 7.5% of the time last season, which could be a testament to how well the Jays pitchers were throwing over the weekend.

Denzel Clarke is a reliable fielder, but as our Jason Burke wrote last week, he's going to need to use his bat to keep himself in the lineup, and so far that hasn't happened. He's struck out six times in nine at-bats as well.

In large part due to the constant strikeouts, the A's also find themselves with the second-worst batting average in baseball after the first series. Their .157 average is only better than the San Francisco Giants' .143 batting average, and the orange and black only managed one run against the Yankees.

Perhaps that's also a good sign for the A's offense, as they managed to plate 11 runs while certainly not performing their best.

The A's will have a trio of games to try to get things back on track in Atlanta, as they'll start out facing the back-end of the Braves' rotation. They'll be tasked with taking on Bryce Elder on Monday, while Tuesday's starter is still listed as TBD.

Waiting for them in game three of this series will be Chris Sale, in what could be a tough test for the A's offense if they're still struggling by that point.

For more A's news and insights, follow Jason @ByJasonB on X, or the site @InsideTheAs!