Piscotty’s sprained knee to get a workout in rehab
Stephen Piscotty has been sidelined nearly a month because of a sprained knee he suffered on a slide in Anaheim on June 29.
The A’s right fielder figures to rejoin their 25man roster soon — but how soon is not exactly certain.
Piscotty will head to El Paso, Texas, on Saturday to begin a rehab assignment with TripleA Las Vegas. The plan is for Piscotty to serve as a designated hitter in his first game, then play seven innings in the field the next game, then take a day off to assess how he’s feeling.
“It’s going to be a seehowitgoes type of thing,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said.
Piscotty said his progression in recovering from the injury “has gone well. There haven’t really been any setbacks whatsoever, so we’ll see how it responds in the game. That’s part of it. I’m not in the clear totally, but I think I should be, based on how I feel now.”
Running straight ahead is not a problem for Piscotty, who’s batting .242 with nine homers and 34 RBIs.
“It’s making that turn to the left which is tough, unfortunately,” Piscotty said. “Running the bases, that’s what you’ve got to do, so that’s kind of been the goal is making sure I’m OK and comfortable doing that.”
Mark Canha started in right field in 18 of the 20 games Piscotty had missed through Thursday night. In that stretch, Canha was 18for68 (.265) with a .375 onbase percentage — which included one game in which Canha did not start in right.
Canha has started at five positions this season: all three outfield spots, first base and DH. Melvin praised Canha’s performance in Piscotty’s absence, but knows the A’s are better with Piscotty.
Melvin referred to Piscotty’s “close to Gold Glovecaliber defense in right field,” before mentioning what Piscotty gives the A’s at the plate. “If you look at the production that we had from him last year (27 homers, 88 RBIs), and the clutch hits and everything that he was all about, and then you use Canha in a different spot, it just kind of adds to the production that we get.”
Piscotty is eager to resume providing that production.
“It’s a grind,” the Stanford alum said about recovering from the knee injury, “but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, so I’m excited to get playing here pretty soon.”
Mount Davis to open: The A’s announced that they will sell $20 tickets in Mount Davis for their Saturday night game against the Giants on Aug. 24. Tickets in the main seating area are sold out.
Most of the seats in Sections 335355 do not have clear views of parts of the outfield. Fans who buy the Mount Davis tickets will get half off on concessions in the area.
Briefly: Las Vegas hit 11 home runs in a 2011 win at El Paso on Friday night. Catcher Sean Murphy hit three. Jorge Mateo, Dustin Fowler and Mark Payton hit two apiece. The Aviators scored the game's final 16 runs . ... Second baseman Corban Joseph went 5for5 with a double and a homer for Las Vegas in a 159 loss to visiting El Paso on Thursday night. Joseph, 30, entered Friday leading the Pacific Coast League in hitting at .384 . ... The A’s have off days on Monday and Friday, but Melvin does not plan to use those off days to go to a fourman rotation.