KANSAS CITY -- Jeffrey Springs needed some sort of a reset. It didn’t come the way he or the A’s wanted -- a trip to the injured list due to right hip discomfort -- but it did provide the veteran a chance to step away.
It turned out to be the fix Springs had been waiting for as the left-hander put together his best start since May in the A’s eventual 9-7 loss to the Royals on Wednesday night at Kauffman Stadium.
“He was not happy with the way he has been performing, so if this is a reset, whether that’s mental or both mental and physical, you hope that he comes out tonight and has a solid outing,” manager Mark Kotsay said pregame.
That’s exactly what happened as Springs spun 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball -- his longest outing since May 22 and the first time he went that deep and allowed two earned runs or fewer since May 17 -- after being activated from the 15-day injured list pregame.
The 33-year-old struck out just one, but he limited Kansas City to five hits as he came one out shy of a quality start. Entering the game, Springs had allowed five runs or more in six of his past nine starts, a stretch that ballooned his season ERA to 6.17.
“It’s been a tough season, for a number of things, but I’m trying to focus on tonight -- pitch and give us a chance to win,” Springs said.
“I want to be out there to fix it. I want to be out there to help us win games. Obviously the last six, eight weeks for me haven’t been great at all. But the only way out is through it.”
While recovering from injury, Springs spent time looking back at his previous successful seasons to see what he could do differently when he returned. He said what he found was pretty glaring and that he was determined to tweak usages of his pitches and improve execution to finish the season strong.
That started Wednesday when Springs upped his changeup usage, throwing it 31% of the time (compared to his 24% season average) to help keep hitters off-balance with the fastball. The results were good -- Springs generated four of his six whiffs against the Royals with the pitch. He threw it eight times against lefties (22% usage) despite entering the game throwing it just 1% of the time against left-handers.
“I thought Jeff did a nice job to get into the sixth inning and really have command of everything tonight," Kotsay said. "A couple walks that he was upset with, but outside of that, I thought he managed the game great and gave us a chance to win.”
Springs ran into trouble in the second and third innings with a pair of two-on, one-out jams, but escaped each time -- getting out of the third with a well-located changeup that Maikel Garcia rolled over for a double play.
Outside of back-to-back hits and a balk that allowed the Royals’ first run to score in the fourth, Springs was on a roll and had set down seven batters in a row until Vinnie Pasquantino launched a solo homer in the sixth.
Still, thanks to Henry Bolte (two hits, RBI), Jeff McNeil (two hits, two RBIs) and Zack Gelof (two RBIs), Springs exited with a 5-2 lead with two outs in the sixth.
“He’s always a dog out there,” said Max Muncy, who hit his first home run since June 24 with a two-run blast in the ninth. “To get him back is huge for us. To go that deep in your first start back, it’s stressful on the body, especially at this point in the year. But we’re psyched to have him back, and I thought it was a good outing.”
However, for the second straight night, the Royals put together a rally against the A’s bullpen -- this one a seven-run eighth inning off Hayden Juenger (three runs) and Drew Rom (four runs) to drop the A’s (49-78) a season-high 29 games under .500.
“We’ve got some bullpen issues right now, that guys are getting opportunities and not taking advantage of them,” Kotsay said. “... Those guys are down there, they’re in the big league ‘pen, they need to go get the job done.
“It’s tough. There’s no question. You’ve got leads back-to-back days and feel like you’ve got a chance to win a game, and we can’t get it done. It’s tough, but they showed up after last night and came out and played with a lead the whole game. … There’s no quit in these guys.”