WEST SACRAMENTO -- Throughout what has been a slow start to his sophomore campaign, neither Nick Kurtz nor the Athletics have shown an ounce of worry.
For the A’s, there’s still no hitter they’d rather have up at the plate in a critical moment than the reigning American League Rookie of the Year, and he showed why in Saturday afternoon’s 7-6 extra-innings win over the White Sox at Sutter Health Park.
Before the A’s walked it off in the 11th on Max Muncy’s sacrifice fly, Kurtz emphatically capped a furious comeback by the A’s offense in a game they trailed, 5-0, early by demolishing a first-pitch fastball up in the zone from Jordan Leasure in the seventh for a game-tying two-run homer.
Kurtz’s two-run laser shot onto the berm beyond the right-field wall -- his second home run of the season -- carried an exit velocity of 115.3 mph by Statcast, marking the hardest hit homer of his career as it surpassed his previous high of 114.6 mph on a majestic 493-foot grand slam against the Reds last season on Sept. 13.
Under Statcast (since 2015), Kurtz’s blast was the second-hardest hit A’s home run behind only Matt Chapman’s 115.9 mph homer on Aug. 29, 2020. It was also the second-hardest hit home run by any player in MLB so far this season.
“I talked about it [Friday] night that I thought he was turning a corner,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “The rhythm and the sync is there. I think there’s going to be some really good days in front of Nick.”
Those good days are starting to stack up for Kurtz, who leads the Majors with 23 walks, but is also tied for fourth-most strikeouts with 30. Despite entering Saturday batting just .215 through his first 19 games, hitting the ball hard has never been an issue. His 98.3 mph average exit velocity leads all Major League hitters.
The difference now is that the hits are starting to fall more frequently. After going 2-for-3 and reaching base five times on Saturday, Kurtz is now hitting .318 (14-for-44) with two homers and three doubles over his last 13 games.
These are the kinds of stretches we became accustomed to seeing from Kurtz last year as he quickly ascended to being considered one of the game’s elite hitters. This version of Kurtz is capable of carrying a team for long stretches, and that would mean wonders for an A’s squad that has been holding its own with a mostly adequate but somewhat unspectacular overall performance by its offense thus far.
“I’m seeing the ball really well and swinging at the right ones,” Kurtz said. “Now, I’m having more success with the ones I swing at. The goal is to continue to build off what I did today and, hopefully, get hot.”
Kurtz had the loudest swing of the afternoon. This win, however, was as all-around as it gets.
Not far behind Kurtz and Muncy in terms of heroics was Jack Perkins, who entered in the ninth with two outs and proceeded to toss 2 1/3 scoreless frames of relief. Before the walk-off, Perkins escaped a bases-loaded jam with none out in the 11th with three consecutive strikeouts, letting out a huge roar as he walked off the mound following the punchout of Sam Antonacci to end the inning.
“Pretty phenomenal to come in and get out of the jam and then go two innings and get out of a bases-loaded jam,” Kotsay said. “We know this kid. We watched it last year. He’s got great stuff. I think he’s built for that role. He showed us that he is.”
It took the entire position-player group and almost came down to a pitcher coming off the bench to hit. The A’s lost the designated hitter slot in their lineup in the 10th after pinch-running for catcher Austin Wynns and later replacing him with Shea Langeliers, who started the game as the DH.
In the 11th, that spot in the order was due up fourth, and with the A’s out of position players, Kotsay was planning to pinch-hit right-hander J.T. Ginn if the spot came up.
Ginn borrowed Jacob Wilson’s bat and began taking practice swings, but Muncy ended it two batters before him.
“If it got to that point, J.T. would be in the batter’s box,” Kotsay said. “When I say we used the whole team, we used the whole team. Today was one of the better wins of the year.”