April showers bring May power? Rooker, A's hope so after HR

WEST SACRAMENTO -- Nobody needed a flip of the calendar more than Brent Rooker.

While April was mostly great for the Athletics, whose 16-10 record was sixth-best in the Majors and their best for the month since April 2014 (18-9), Rooker had arguably the worst month of his career. The two-time All-Star slugger hit just .061 in 10 games, with a strained right oblique sidelining him halfway through and causing him to miss 15 games and snap his consecutive games played streak at 214.

That’s why even in an 8-5 series-opening loss to the Guardians on Friday at Sutter Health Park, Rooker seemingly getting back on track felt like a win. He slugged a booming, Statcast-projected 422-foot two-run homer in the first inning off Joey Cantillo for his first hit since a walk-off blast on April 5 to snap an ugly 0-for-20 skid -- the longest hitless streak of his career -- and later added an RBI single to finish 2-for-5 with three RBIs.

The A’s (17-15) have maintained their first-place standing atop the American League West despite Rooker’s rough start to the season, thanks to a potent offense around him that includes Nick Kurtz -- who pushed his historic walk streak to 20 games on Friday – and Shea Langeliers, tied with the Astros' Yordan Alvarez for the MLB lead in hits with 42.

Still, Rooker is the heart and soul of this lineup. He’s the unofficial team captain and leader of this group. That’s why the entire A’s dugout erupted when Rooker’s home run left the yard. In some ways, they’ve been grinding through these struggles alongside him.

"Rook had solid at-bats tonight,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “He looked a lot better tonight. That’s the Rook that we’re used to seeing and we’ll continue to start seeing.”

One big game does not cure a slump like this. Rooker has been around long enough to know that. Given how the past month has gone for him, though, Friday’s performance felt like a step toward climbing out of it at the very least. At his best, he’s making tons of hard contact, and he did that often on Friday, as even his groundout in the ninth was smoked at an exit velocity of 103.7 mph.

“I still have a long way to go,” Rooker said. “Still not thrilled with the way my swing looks or how my mechanics are feeling, but I’ll keep working on it. The only way out is forward, so just keep pressing and trust the work and the process that’s gotten me to this point, and the results will follow.”

Slow starts aren’t exactly foreign to Rooker, especially during his A’s tenure. In 2024, Rooker hit just .206 through March/April. He finished that year by crushing 39 homers and posting a .927 OPS, both career highs.

That experience will come in handy as Rooker navigates these waters.

"I trust in my ability to figure out whatever is going wrong and correct it,” Rooker said. “Get back to being a guy that can go out and produce at a high level.”