WASHINGTON -- The opener strategy is typically reserved for inexperienced starting pitchers to avoid the opposing team’s top hitters early in a game. So when Athletics manager Mark Kotsay pulled veteran Jeffrey Springs into his office in June and told him he would be following an opener, the skipper knew what type of reaction was coming.
“I told him we were making an adjustment,” Kotsay said. “He wasn’t happy about it, which I love. From that day forward, when he got the opportunity to go back on the mound and take the ball from pitch one, he’s performed.”
At the time the A’s first decided to use an opener for Springs on June 4, the 32-year-old left-hander held a 4.72 ERA through 12 starts, with his first-inning struggles well documented. Since then, Springs has emerged as the A’s most consistent starter, making quality outings like the one he put together at Nationals Park in Wednesday’s 2-1 walk-off loss to the Nationals a regularity.
Briefly flirting with a perfect game by retiring his first 15 hitters faced, Springs’ bid for history came to an abrupt end in the bottom of the sixth when Riley Adams led off with a game-tying solo home run on a 3-2 slider that hung over the middle of the plate.
That backdoor slider was an outlier in an otherwise dominant performance by Springs, who allowed just one baserunner on a night in which he kept hitters off balance throughout six innings of one-run ball.
"He was mixing his pitches well and keeping guys off guard,” Adams said. “He had a really good changeup working. I was just able to get to a 3-2 [count]. I didn't think he was coming at me with a breaking ball to potentially give up the [perfect game] or anything like that. I was just happy I was able to make contact.”
Springs, who lowered his ERA to 3.89 for the season, has now allowed three earned runs or fewer in 10 of his last 11 outings, holding a 3.17 ERA (25 earned runs in 71 innings) over that period. That stretch traces back to the first time he pitched following an opener on June 4 against the Twins.
Springs confirmed he indeed was “not happy” during that conversation with Kotsay. At the same time, he understood the reason behind the decision, pointing to a first month in which he felt like he was doing things with his pitching mechanics that were “uncharacteristic” from his previous seasons with the Rays.
“I wasn’t too thrilled about it,” Springs said. “I’m a competitor. I can’t help that side of me. [Kotsay] understands that. … I needed to pitch better. That was the bottom line. I appreciated him sitting down and talking to me about it. Having that one-on-one and him saying, ‘Hey, you need to try to figure it out.’”
There are some tweaks that Springs made, mainly working on moving more efficiently with his delivery rather than staying stagnant and being more on time with his release point. Having that brief shift to following an opener on June 4 and June 9 before moving back into the rotation on June 15 allowed him to readjust and get back on track.
“After several years, I feel like I understand what I need to do to have success,” Springs said. “That [conversation] was kind of a wake-up call, so to speak. Trying to pitch like I’m capable of and giving us a chance to win is the only thing I’m trying to do.”
Springs did all he could to position the A’s for a victory, but an offense that erupted for 24 hits and 16 runs the previous night was held mostly silent by the Nationals, save for Tyler Soderstrom, who blasted a go-ahead solo shot in the top of the sixth.
With Soderstrom’s 20th big fly of the year, the A’s became the first team in the Majors this season to have four players (Soderstrom, Brent Rooker, Shea Langeliers, Nick Kurtz) reach the 20-homer mark. It speaks to the potency of this offense, but it also highlights a heavy reliance on the long ball. Entering Wednesday, 248 of the A’s 509 runs (48.7%) had scored on home runs, which ranked as the second highest percentage in the Majors.
“We are trying to put innings together like we did last night, where we don’t rely on the homer,” Kotsay said. “But this lineup is kind of built around that right now.”