Road, sweet road? A's ready for reset after rough homestand

WEST SACRAMENTO -- As they changed clothes and packed bags for the upcoming road trip, the Athletics welcomed the opportunity to forget a lot of what happened at Sutter Health Park over the previous week.

After getting swept in a three-game series by the Mariners to fall out of first place in the AL West, the A’s completed their homestand by dropping two of three to the Yankees, including a 13-8 blowout Sunday that was highlighted by New York doing all of its scoring in one inning.

One brutally long, nearly 43-minute inning that packed in all of the Yankees' 11 hits on the day.

Beyond that frame, the A’s played fairly well and even made a late surge to make the final score respectable, a small asterisk on an otherwise rough afternoon.

The hope is that a break from playing at Sutter Health Park might be the thing to get the A’s back on track following a mostly disastrous 1-5 homestand.

Already this season they’ve proven to be more effective away from home than they are in West Sacramento.

Through 59 games including Sunday, the A’s (28-31) are just 11-17 at home. That’s the second-worst home record in the Major Leagues.

Conversely, manager Mark Kotsay’s ballclub has done some of its best work on the road. The A's 17-14 mark is the 10th-best road record in baseball.

The clear divide is not lost on Kotsay.

"We’re well aware that we haven’t played well here in this ballpark,” Kotsay said. “This homestand we were really punched in the face. We’re going to go on the road and hopefully this group responds in a fashion they have in the past.”

The A’s struggles at home have cost them in the standings.

When they returned to Sutter Health Park last Monday they held a 2 1/2 game lead in the West. When they boarded the bus for the airport on Sunday, the A’s had slipped 2 1/2 games behind Seattle.

There were a few bright spots Sunday, despite everything else.

Reliever Jack Perkins, the third pitcher Kotsay used in the disastrous third, retired all seven batters he faced. All-Star slugger Brent Rooker homered for the first time in nearly two weeks. Jonah Heim also went deep with a three-run shot in the seventh to make the final score somewhat respectable.

The wild part is that the A’s played very well outside of the third inning, putting together that late uprising that kept fans interested to the very end.

“It’s not how the game works, but eight out of the nine innings we won,” Rooker said. “Lot of positives from it.”

Rooker also cautioned fans to not get too worked up about the home and away splits, saying, “It’s all part of the ebb and flow of the season.”

Kotsay was also quick to point out that the two teams the A’s will face on the upcoming trip, the Astros and Cubs, are playing better and more consistently than they were earlier in the season.

“We all have confidence playing on the road right now," Kotsay said. "We haven’t played our best baseball at home. We’ve got two tough series. Houston’s playing a lot better baseball. Chicago’s rebounded after their tough stretch.

“Going out and getting on the road, that seems to be an area where we’ve played well. That’s the mindset.”

The numbers back it up.

Through their first 59 games, the A’s have allowed an average of 3.00 more runs per game at home than they have on the road. That's the sixth-worst home vs. road differential through a team's first 59 games in any season.

It's also the largest home vs. road differential through 59 games since the 2016 Rockies allowed 7.2 runs per game at home vs. 3.7 runs away from Coors Field (+3.5).

“We have been playing well on the road, so I think the team’s going to be good,” said lefty Jacob Lopez, who started Sunday's game with two clean innings before New York's third-inning uprising.