An unwanted trend has made its way back to West Sacramento for the A’s they continued their season-long losing streak Monday night at Sutter Health Park.
The offense struggled with runners in scoring position for a third-straight game, all one-run losses, while Monday’s contest was their sixth straight defeat coming off their recent road trip where they dropped five consecutive games in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
“Obviously our at-bats were better, but the result wasn’t,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said after the A’s fell to the Los Angeles Angels 4-3. “To get out of a grind, it takes a big performance. You look for someone to kind of put the team on their back and carry them through. But we got another game tomorrow to go out and try to win.”
The A’s went 2-10 with runners in scoring position, which includes the final out of the game when Tyler Soderstrom struck out swinging against Angels closer Kenley Jansen with a runner on second. It continued a trend from Sunday’s loss to the San Francisco Giants when the A’s went 1-6 with runners in scoring position in a 3-2 loss, which followed a 1-of-10 performance in Saturday’s 1-0 defeat in extra innings.
“I thought (our hitters) did a good job shrinking their zones and swinging at good pitches,” Kotsay said.
The A’s came close to tying the game with balls that were caught just in front of the fence. Nick Kurtz flew out to deep center field in the eighth inning and pinch-hitting Seth Brown sent one deep to right in the ninth. Both could have been home runs with more help from the prevailing winds that were absent on Monday.
Monday’s game dropped the A’s to 22-26, tying a season-high for four games under .500. They fell to 8-14 in their new digs in West Sacramento after entering the night with the third worst winning percentage on their home field. The team announced the attendance at Sutter Health Park was 10,519. Attendance has only been higher than 11,000 in four games this season: opening night and throughout the three-game series against the New York Yankees earlier this month.
The A’s on Monday got four innings from starting pitcher J.T. Ginn, who made his first outing since going on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation. Ginn allowed four runs on six hits, including home runs to Taylor Ward and Nolan Schanuel, who had three hits.
Ginn managed seven strikeouts, tying his career high from earlier this season.
“We’re playing some good baseball, man, and that’s part of the game, you’re going to lose those close ones,” Ginn said afterwards. “I think we can do better and we’re close to clicking there.”
The A’s came in on a five-game losing streak in which they were out scored 41-8, their pitchers had an 8.64 ERA while they hit .140 as a team.
The second game of the four-game series is Tuesday when the A’s send right hander Gunnar Hoglund (1-1, 3.78) against right hander Kyle Hendricks (1-5-5.18).
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Chris Biderman covered the 49ers from 2013 to 2021 and started with The Sacramento Bee in August 2018. He previously spent time with the Associated Press and USA Today Sports Media Group. A Santa Rosa native, he graduated with a degree in journalism from the Ohio State University.