Perkins confident he can be the pitcher he wants to be in season's final weeks

WEST SACRAMENTO -- Still early in his Major League career, Jack Perkins remains an enigma for the Athletics.

There is no question that Perkins is talented -- we’ve seen it sporadically throughout his time in the big leagues as both a starter and reliever. However, following his rough outing in Wednesday’s 8-4 loss to the Rays at Sutter Health Park, the 26-year-old right-hander acknowledged he’s at a bit of a crossroads.

“I’m being tested,” Perkins said. “One day it’s the homer. Today, it was the singles. It’s just frustrating. I’m going to keep grinding and see where we go from here. … Right now, it’s tough to look at who I am out there.”

Perkins, who began last season ranked among the A’s top 10 prospects by MLB Pipeline, allowed seven runs (six earned) on a career-high 12 hits and one walk with two strikeouts over five innings. He’s had similar results in previous starts, but this one was a bit uncharacteristic in how it played out.

Through the good and bad starts, one constant for Perkins has been his ability to miss bats. He entered Wednesday averaging 10.80 strikeouts per nine innings, which ranked 11th best in the Majors among pitchers with 70 or more innings pitched.

Against Tampa Bay, Perkins did not record his two strikeouts until his final two batters faced, punching out Richie Palacios and Taylor Walls back-to-back to end the fifth. He recorded a total of just seven whiffs on the day, as the Rays put the ball in play often. Outside of a three-run homer surrendered to Liam Hicks in the fourth, most of the contact against Perkins was weak, with seven singles and an overall average exit velocity of 78.1 mph on 24 batted-ball events.

Having recorded just three strikeouts and six whiffs in his previous outing against the Red Sox on Friday, Perkins admitted that his negative results this season have caused him to -- at times -- lack full conviction in his pitches, perhaps leading to lack of swing-and-miss. That’s something that needs to change if he’s going to find sustained success at this level.

“It has caused me to be more timid,” Perkins said. “You look at my stuff, sweeper, changeup and four-seam, they’re all relatively moving like they always have. I have to get back to fully competing every time. … Somewhere inside, I’ve lost that little bit of an edge that has always made me the pitcher that I am. I want to get back to being that guy.”

There appeared to be some positive momentum brewing in the second half for Perkins, who came back from the All-Star break with an outing of three runs in five innings against the D-backs in his first start followed by two runs in 5 2/3 innings against the Red Sox in the next one. Since then, he’s combined to allow 18 runs (17 earned) across 13 1/3 innings over his last three starts against Detroit, Boston and now Tampa Bay.

These ups and downs are not uncommon for a young starter. As manager Mark Kotsay put it, Perkins is a perfectionist, which can be detrimental when things are not going according to plan. The key going forward is for him to better handle those situations.

“He expects to be perfect,” Kotsay said. “That’s something that he’s got to get away from. Results are impacting him inside the game when he gives up hits. This is the maturity of a young starter. We’ve talked a lot about J.T. Ginn and when he gives up hits, he knows how to shut an inning down. … He’s not focused on what he did. It’s about what he can do. That’s Jack’s next step, really.”

Kotsay said he “challenged” Perkins by sending him back out for the fifth after a damaging four-run fourth and liked what he saw in a scoreless frame to end his outing.

“It was a challenge to show me that he can do this,” Kotsay said. “He answered that challenge.”

Now holding a 7.27 ERA in 29 games (11 starts) this season, Perkins remains confident that he will discover the pitcher he wants to be in the final six weeks of the season.

“I’m a faith-based guy,” Perkins said. “God’s letting me go through this for a reason. I’m going to continue to get better and have faith that this is for a reason. It doesn’t mean I don’t have what it takes to be here. I’m learning things through this.”