Oakland Athletics Give Fans Little to Celebrate At Home So Far

With Friday’s Loss, Oakland Athletics Continue to Struggle at Home

Oakland Athletics fans are eager to celebrate at the Coliseum.  So far we have witnessed one win and seven losses at home.  The A’s have faced some tough opponents.  The White Sox, Angels and Royals are going to be very good this year.  Unfortunately, the A’s will soon embark on a road trip against more top-flight competition.  The road ahead does not get easier.  A’s fans are just going to have to be patient.

We, as fans, have gone through this many times.  The team struggles in April, and about halfway through May, everything clicks.  By August, when the A’s team is playing well, no one really remembers April.  In 2001, the team started off 1-9, and they finished the season with 102 wins.  Khris Davis always struggles in April.  And last year, he hit 21 home runs after the All Star break.  In some ways, April is like a shake down cruise for Bob Melvin.  He is still trying to figure out what is working and what needs to be replaced.  To be honest, I think we all are trying to figure that out.

Friday’s game really bugged me.  Part of it was because two days ago, I was telling A’s fans not to give up on Sean Doolittle and on Friday night, he gave up a long home run to the left-handed hitting Eric Hosmer.  It is hard to be patient with a left-handed closer who can not even get lefties out!  Maybe it was my imagination, but after the homer, I saw Doolittle pitching with a little more anger.  I think he needs a little more rage out there.  And maybe he needs to make hitters a little uncomfortable digging in at the plate.  A hitter can still be looking for a fastball, but he should just have to guess if it’s coming over the plate or under his chin.

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The main reason this game bugged me was because the Royals had men on base all night long and only managed to score four runs.  They had 12 hits and five walks – but they left 11 men on base, and they did not score from the third inning through the eighth.  (The A’s manage to blow games like that all the time.  And after the game, the post game analysis is always, “The A’s had their chances, but they were never able to cash in and add on.  Team X hung around just long enough to beat them with one big hit.”) The Royals should have been up by five or six runs.  It would have been so great if the Athletics had come back to beat them.

One reason the Royals did not score more was because the A’s played good defense.  They managed to turn three double plays on the infield.  They may not be seeing any results yet, but the A’s defense is much better this year.  Hopefully, Yonder Alonso starts to hit, because he is a joy to watch at first base.  Can the A’s  go the season without a lot of run production from a corner infielder?  I think not.  Boy, I hope Alonso hits.

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Rich Hill continues to befuddle me.  How good is he?  Hill seemed to get a lot more aggressive with his fastball in the fourth inning, and he was getting results.  Unfortunately, he had already thrown about 90 pitches at that point.  Henderson Alvarez seems to be about three to four weeks away.  Once he returns, it might be time to reshape the starting rotation.  Doolittle aside, the relievers were lights out tonight.  Fernando Rodriguez, Marc Rzepczynski and Ryan Dull were excellent.  Melvin is already worried about overworking the bullpen.  Sonny Gray, Rich Hill and the rest of the starters need to go deeper in games, in order to spare the relievers from pitching so many innings.

This was another tough loss, but there is still a silver lining for A’s fans.  The Athletics have strong pitching and potentially good hitting.  They will probably play at least .500 at home.  That means we can expect to see at least forty more wins in Oakland.  And wouldn’t you rather be celebrating those wins in September instead of April???