WEST SACRAMENTO – The Athletics have concluded a grueling stretch of 16 games in 16 days for the second time in 2026, and this upcoming day off could not come soon enough.
A one-sided three-game sweep at the hands of the Mariners ended with a tough blow. Not only were the A’s dominated in a 9-1 loss in Wednesday’s finale at Sutter Health Park, they also were leapfrogged for first place in the American League West, now trailing Seattle by half a game after maintaining sole possession of first place for 31 consecutive days.
There’s no dancing around how ugly of a series this was. In a matchup that pitted the top two AL West teams in what has been a close division, these three games were anything but. The A’s scored just four runs and never held a lead in 27 innings of play, getting outscored, 22-4.
“I think today’s game kind of summed up the series, really,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “We gave away too many free runs. When you give away free runs and get behind a good team that has a good pitching staff, it makes it really difficult to win baseball games. We saw that again today.”
Before the A’s welcome the Yankees for the start of a three-game set on Friday, here are some takeaways from the series:
Defensive woes
The A’s committed two more errors on Wednesday, including a pivotal miscue in the first when second baseman Jeff McNeil fielded a grounder hit by Josh Naylor that should have ended the inning. Instead, McNeil fired an errant throw to first base that allowed Naylor to reach. One batter later, Jeffrey Springs surrendered a three-run home run to Rob Refsnyder.
After just committing eight errors through their first 40 games, the A’s have now made 13 in the last 16 games. That stretch also coincides with the time shortstop Jacob Wilson, who was performing as one of the top defensive shortstops in MLB before getting injured, was placed on the 10-day IL on May 11.
“We had a chance to make a couple of plays behind Springs,” Kotsay said. “We weren’t able to make those plays, which resulted in more runs than what should have been on the board. … Defensively, we’ve not been able to replicate how we played the first [40] games. You’re seeing that in the result. Pitchers have to get extra outs and make extra pitches. It’s kind of a trickle-down effect here right now. That’s what we need to clean up.”
Offense isn’t clicking
The A’s have dropped 11 of their last 17 games. The offense broke out last week in Anaheim with a 14-run outburst against the Angels on Tuesday. Aside from that, the A’s are averaging just 2.94 runs in the other 16 games of that stretch.
The A’s have collected a fair amount of hits over the past couple of weeks, including 19 in this series against Seattle. What has been lacking is the clutch hit. Over these past three games, the A’s combined to go 1-for-17 with runners in scoring position and left a total of 21 runners on base.
This offense entered the season projected to be a potential top-five unit in baseball. A few key sluggers, however, remain off to slow starts: Lawrence Butler (.163 batting average, .506 OPS), Brent Rooker (.189 batting average, .626 OPS) and Tyler Soderstrom (.209 batting average, .690 OPS).
“Our offense, the slug and the home run created over 50 percent of our runs last year,” Kotsay said. “That production is down right now. We’re getting hits, but we’re not getting the big hit. … Offensively, we know what we need to work on. We know the focus, and that’s what we’ll get back to work on Friday.”
Rotation questions
Springs was the victim of bad defense, evidenced by three of his five runs allowed through five innings on Wednesday being unearned. Nonetheless, A’s starting pitchers have been on a downward trend. Over the past 12 games, starters are now 0-8 with a 5.73 ERA (38 earned runs in 59 2/3 innings).
“My job is to salvage the series and stop the bleeding a little bit,” Springs said. “I didn’t feel like I did a very good job of that from the get-go. Any time you put up a crooked number in the first inning, it’s tough on the offense. I put us in a hole early. It’s frustrating.”