A’s Chapman shaves head, hits HR in win over White Sox.
After Pinder shaves his head, Chapman locks in with hair-raising home run
CHICAGO >> Matt Chapman’s hair was getting long and a little too curly.
So a few hours before batting practice on Friday, Chapman had teammate Chad Pinder take a razor to his head. Perhaps Chapman was looking to regain his on-field groove. Consider it done.
In his first at bat during the A’s 7-0 win over the White Sox, Chapman belted a home run off White Sox starter Ross Detwiler. Chapman erased an 0-2 count in the process.
“Been there probably too much lately,” Chapman said of the unfavorable count.
This time he didn’t strike out. Chapman
found a changeup he could handle, belting it 114 mph over the left field fence.
“He’ll never have any hair on his head again, ever. All he had to do was shave it and hit a homer, so now we know,” manager Bob Melvin said. “All it takes for a guy like him is a good game.”
So, was baldness the key factor? “I’m not gonna say it was fully for that,” Chapman laughed. “I will say it was kind of a win-win.”
The haircut appeared to do wonders
for Chapman’s deep slump, a skid that had him 1 for 20 in August with seven strikeouts (albeit, his one hit was a game-winning home run off Milwaukee’s Josh Hader).
Chapman went 2 for 5 on Friday, his second hit a slow chopper he beat out. For a full-haired Chapman it might’ve gone down as a swinging sac. bunt of sorts (it advanced Marcus Semien into scoring position).
“Anything I’d been doing like that lately I’d been out by a step,” Chapman said. “So the baseball gods are rewarding me for running hard.”
But will the head stay shaved?
“Until it grows out,” Chapman said. “It’s 1 for 1 today, so we’ll see.” PINDER COMBATS LEFTHANDERS >> Chapman chose his barber wisely, clearly.
Before the A’s week-long trip to Chicago for series against the Cubs and White Sox, the A’s had faced just one left-hander over 18 games. Then the Cubs and White Sox laid down a southpaw gauntlet, first with the Cubs throwing lefties Jon Lester and Jose Quintana on the mound. The Sox followed with Detwiler.
This three-game stretch has given Pinder — who has a .323 OPS against lefties — some more consistent at bats. At Wrigley Field, Pinder had two hits, including a double.
The White Sox brought in lefty Jace Fry in the eighth inning with the score 2-0, and Pinder hit his 11th home run of the year 403 feet to center.
“It’s tough when we have a stretch of four five games and he doesn’t get to play,” Melvin said. “When he gets consistent at bats he’s a very consistent guy and he plays a good outfield, too.”
Pinder is known to make some web gem catches in the outfield, but Melvin also mentioned that Statcast records him as has one of the better first-step reactions on defense.
With injuries nagging and popping up consistently, Pinder’s consistency despite spotty playing time has been crucial to the A’s success.
MIKE FIERS DELIVERS, AGAIN >> Tell me if you’ve heard this before: Fiers had another quality start. He was throwing all his stuff for strikes again, with seven scoreless innings on Friday.
Now to put numbers to it: Fiers delivered his 19th straight quality start. He hasn’t allowed more than three runs since April 20 against Toronto.
Since April 26, Fiers’ ERA has only gotten lower. His 2.30 ERA over that span is the third-best in the bigs (behind Hyun-Jin Ryu and Max Scherzer).
Friday something was a little different, though. Fiers was suffering from a head cold. Yet, his stuff never looked better. His curveball was particularly filthy, garnering some key swings and misses (he struck out three with it) and soft contact. His fastball was locating, and he was elevating with a good changeup.
“One of those games and look up and see he has no walks and eight strikeouts, that’s significant,” Melvin said.
He allowed three hits, two of them to budding White Sox star Tim Anderson.
WIN NO. 700 >> The win marked Melvin’s 700th as the A’s manager.
“It feels like a short period of time and it feels like forever,” Melvin said of the landmark.
The win also moved the A’s back into a tie with Tampa Bay for the second wild card spot, 3.5 games behind the Cleveland Indians.