WEST SACRAMENTO -- As far as debuts go, this one could have gone a whole lot better.
With the Athletics debuting their alternate ‘Sacramento Gold’ uniforms on Saturday, thousands of fans flocked to Sutter Health Park hours before first pitch, forming lines that wrapped around the corners of the stadium for a replica giveaway of the jersey commemorating the team’s current home base.
Once inside, the capacity crowd covered the ballpark’s entire seating areas with a sea of gold. As the A’s took the field in the Sacramento Golds for the first time, proud fans from the Sacramento area greeted players with an energized “Sac-ra-men-to!” chant in unison.
That pregame moment ended up as the high point of the afternoon for the A’s. One day after the bats finally broke out and seemingly everything went right in a blowout win in their home opener, the opposite transpired in Saturday’s 11-0 loss to the Astros.
This game harkened back to the painful memories of a rebuilding phase over the past few years that this year’s playoff-aspiring A’s squad believes is now fully in the rearview mirror. The offense was futile, notching just five hits – all singles – and three walks while striking out 13 times. Defensive miscues created extra opportunities for the opposition. Pitching lacked execution, as the A’s issued 13 walks.
All that combined for a blunt postgame assessment by manager Mark Kotsay.
“We didn’t really do anything well today,” Kotsay said. “That game was reflective of, in my opinion, past performances that we feel like we’ve put behind us and we need to put behind us as a team. … We talk about beating ourselves all the time. Today, we completely beat ourselves.”
WALKS GALORE
The 13 walks by A’s pitchers marked just the second time since 2000 they’ve allowed 13 or more in one game. The last was smack dab in the middle of that aforementioned rebuild phase, when the A’s walked 17 batters against the Mets on April 14, 2023.
It began with starter Luis Morales, who issued a career-high six walks and hit a batter in three innings and was charged with five earned runs after exiting following a leadoff walk to begin the fourth.
“The biggest concern is just lack of command and not getting the ball in the zone,” Kotsay said. “When you’re not throwing your breaking ball in the zone, your fastball is going to get hit. You have to be able to keep big league hitters off balance. … He was behind [in the count] most of the day, and when you’re behind against this type of team, these hitters are going to make you pay.”
From there, four A’s relievers combined to issue seven walks over the game’s final six innings.
“For Morales today, it looked like they were on him early and he shied away from the zone,” Kotsay said. “Obviously, 13 walks in a game, that’s not reflective of the expectation level of our [pitching] staff right now.”
IMAI ISSUES
Just when it looked like this potent A’s offense was finally set to take off after a slumping start to the season with an 11-run output on Friday night, Astros starter Tatsuya Imai put the clamps back on. The right-hander stymied the A’s across 5 2/3 scoreless innings with nine strikeouts while limiting them to just three hits and three walks.
Imai’s slider was practically unhittable, utilized as the putaway pitch on five of his strikeouts and generating 10 total whiffs. The movement on that unorthodox slider was described by A’s hitters as having a “gyro-like” spin and perplexed them throughout the day.
“He was throwing that slider for a strike and it was kind of doing everything,” said A’s second baseman Jeff McNeil. “Some went left. Some went right. It was pretty interesting to see. You don’t see a lot of pitches like that. Even on the video from his last start, I didn’t really see one that did that too much. He was throwing that a little bit more today, and it was working against us.”
The A’s will quickly turn the page on this one and look to Sunday’s series finale, where they still have an opportunity to notch their first series victory of 2026. They’ll also hope for a better showing later this month when donning the Sacramento Golds, which the team will wear every Saturday home game as part of “Sacramento Saturdays” at Sutter Health Park.