A’s win sixth game in a row.
OAKLAND >> The A’s finished a three-game series sweep of the Texas Rangers on Thursday with a 6-4 win. After a somewhat shaky start to the season, they’ve extended a win streak to six games, with the Houston Astros flying into Oakland for a weekend series.
The A’s 9-4 record matches their best record after 13 games over the last 30 years. They also started this hot in 1992, 2010, 2013 and 2014.
Here are some takeaways. KHRIS DAVIS DH PLATOON >> Davis is an unfamiliar holding pattern, platooning as the designated hitter.
Davis was left out the lineup in the first two games against righthanded pitchers Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn to keep up his confidence after making a minor adjustment with his hands. “It (stinks), but I’ve been here before,” Davis said. “I’ve lost my job before a couple of times and had to battle back. This is nothing new to me.”
Davis had two hits with two RBIs, slotted in the seventh spot against Rangers’ left-handed starter Mike Minor on Thursday. Davis hit a home run in Seattle and collected four RBIs with four hits and a walk in the two games since he’s moved his hands back
up a bit on the bat.
It’s been a journey trying to find the perfect timing and find the right tweaks to get back to the slugger he was before his injury in Pittsburgh last May.
“We’ve been working nonstop trying to figure out what’s going to work,” Davis said. “I think when I got hurt, I’ve been getting set up different. My body wasn’t adjusting to that injury, and when I just put my hands further back it just kind of freed things up.”
The slight adjustment is allowing Davis to make better contact. He said it’s less about timing, more about being in the right position when he connects. He’s swinging and missing less.
“He’s looked really good,” manager Bob Melvin said. “He’s pulling some balls now, he’s not late on them. He’s swung the bat well and I know he feels good about his swing right now, and so do I.”
As nice as it was to see Davis homer in Seattle, his teammates continue to drill into his head that they don’t expect him to go yard every atbat.
“They know what it’s like to go through a struggle,” Davis said. “They kept reminding me that I can hit all around. I don’t have to hit a home run. They constantly remind me that I’m a good hitter. I’m not just a power hitter.”
MATT OLSON’S HOME RUN MUSTACHE >> Power hitters are streaky, so Matt Olson’s .094 average he’s had since his walk-off grand slam on opening night wasn’t particularly alarming, but certainly noticeable. Olson decided he had to do something about it, not necessarily in the batting cages.
He just didn’t shave his top lip.
“Well, I didn’t do it to look good,” the A’s first baseman said Thursday of his new facial hair. “You know what
The Athletics’ Khris Davis follows the flight of his tworun single off Rangers pitcher Mike Minor in the fourth. they say, it’s never too early to hit the panic button. I was clearly searching for a couple of knocks and luckily got them.”
Once Olson grew a sizable mustache by Wednesday, he promptly hit a 3-for-6 streak. Of course, those three hits are all home runs. Two came in Wednesday’s win. One he hit in the first inning off Minor.
After his home run on Thursday, Olson rubbed his trusty new mustache.
Olson’s has had a few rough at-bats against some of the tougher left-handed pitchers the A’s have faced thus far, but his splits have been even and evened out more with that homer.
Against right-handers, he has four hits, four RBIs and two home runs with 11 walks and eight strikeouts. Against left-handers, he’s hit two home runs (including the grand slam), with four hits, six RBIs, five strikeouts and two walks.
SMALL BALL A’S >> The A’s power dropped into small ball land. One big crooked number through a few hits and movements gave Oakland some breathing room in the fourth inning.
It started with Ramón Laureano’s leadoff single and Matt Chapman’s walk to follow. Mark Canha punched a single up the middle and Davis pulled a two-run single to give the A’s a four-run lead. Stephen Piscotty’s sacrifice fly scored the A’s fifth.
After four shutout innings, Mike Fiers ran into trouble in the fifth when Ramón Laureano got too aggressive diving for Isiah Kiner Falefa’s drive, resulting in a triple. He scored on Anderson Tejeda’s single, but Fiers ended the rally there.
But the Rangers kept fighting. Todd Frazier hit a solo home run in the sixth to cut the A’s lead in half. Then, with left-handed T.J. McFarland warming, Melvin gave Fiers a crack at switch-hitting Tejeda again. Tejeda punished Fiers’ changeup for a two-run home run, cutting the A’s lead to one.
The A’s answered with a bit more small ball the next inning. After Davis hit his second single of the day, Piscotty decided to lay a perfect bunt down to move him over. Franklin Barreto came in as a pinch runner for Davis, and Sean Murphy sent him home on a single.
“Murphy, that’s a big hit, but the difference between two and one lead, psychology wise, is huge,” Melvin said. UPNEXT>> The Houston Astros fly into Oakland for a three-game series this weekend. Chris Bassitt will face off against Zack Greinke today. Frankie Montas and Jesús Luzardo are slated to follow. Not a bad way for the rotation to fall for this AL West joust.
But, as of Thursday afternoon, the A’s hold a two-game lead over the Astros for first in the West.