Athletics can't dig out from early deficit in loss vs. Royals to open series

On "A's Cast," Chris Townsend and Shooty Babitt discuss the Athletics' 9-5 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Monday at Kauffman Stadium.

Athletics can't dig out from early deficit in loss vs. Royals to open series originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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Getting down early in tonight's ballgame really did in the Athletics as they lose to the Kansas City Royals nine to five.

But you do like what you saw offensively, and Jeff McNeil, what he's been doing since the All-Star break, it is eye-popping.

And good to see Tommy Tanks get his second career home run.

So they put up a fight, and really had a shot there in the ninth inning, but those runs given up early kind of really kind of took the air out of the balloon.

Chris Townsend alongside the super scout, Shooty Babbitt.

And a tough loss, especially after you were on a little bit of a high, what you did in the w- on the weekend with that two out of three out of the Texas Rangers at home.

Yeah, I think you pretty much summed it up probably as, as eloquently as you could, Tony.

Coming out of the series that you won, that you needed so badly, to go on the road, first inning you score.

I mean, everybody's on a high, and all of a sudden, our starter goes out and struggles a little bit.

And when you're playing defense behind a guy and every pitch means so much, and pitch count keeps going up, things get a little tougher.

But I'll look at this one as the A's were one for six with runners in scoring position, and Kansas City was seven for 13, and their bullpen didn't give up anything after Walker left the game.

Give our guys some credit, but they just pretty much outplayed us tonight.

As a former infielder and as a scout who watches so many games throughout the year, what you're talking about really is the story here, is when a starting pitcher really goes out and struggles, whether he's giving up hits or he's walking pitches, and it's just the game slows down and it really just zaps your energy.

It takes everything out of the team, and you make a little bit of a comeback.

But talk about that a little bit more where it's just like, it's no fun when you're down early and it's just like, here we go again.

Well, I'll give you one example.

We saw Lawrence Butler make a play to home plate.

I mean, standing on your feet, waiting for something, waiting for something to happen.

Now ball's hit to you, you wanna make something happen so badly, you kind of lose your d- wherewithal, where you are in the game.

Yeah.

The first thing he thinks about throwing a guy out that's already crossed the plate.

So everybody start trying to play too quickly, and that is the key to this game, understanding how to slow the game down.

Instincts will allow you to understand what you're gonna do before the ball's even hit because you're gonna know what you're gonna do with the ball if it's hit to you.

But when things get the way that it was, I mean, every- that body's moving so fast and you just cannot concentrate and slow the game down, and that's when the game starts getting out of hand.

And 37 games left in a season like this, it's just human nature that when you start seeing a game like this, that the, you know, guys start looking around, going, you know, "We've seen this all year long."

You know, the good teams feel like, "Hey, we can battle back.

Let's stop it here.

We got a chance."

When you've struggled, you know, you got guys that are, let's face it, there's a reason why you have the record you have, and it's that, "Here we go again."

You talking about getting a life lesson in one season.

I mean, every night I think you're seeing something differently.

We're seeing good teams that come in that feel like you're a team that they can pick some ground up.

Now you're facing the Kansas City Royals, who are similar to you are.

I mean, the records are almost the same.

Both teams at the bottom of their divisions and trying to finish up strong.

So I think what separates the good teams from teams that are on the rise are the teams that understand where they are and where they're trying to get to, and what it's gonna take to get them to that point.

And when you have a young age team, guys are moving in different positions, different batting order, you name it, you don't know where you're gonna play each day.

Yeah.

And hit availability, i- is the, is the best ability.

And right now it's just show up, be ready to go, be ready to play and to perform wherever you're put, and I think that's gonna separate guys that are gonna be on this roster moving forward from the guys that cannot perform when things are just not comfortable for you.

Now, there are some really good things in this game, and we're gonna go over.

I can't wait to show the home runs and some, what some guys did offensively, but we gotta go through the game first.

Let's get to the Toyota Turning Point, and really, it was the first two innings where the Royals are gonna put a three spot up in the first, a two spot in the second.

You know, you were up one-nothing to start this game because of Jeff McNeil.

This is the play you're talking about right here.

The runner on third no doubt is going to score, and Lawrence overthrows the cop man.

McNeil, runner gets to second.

Next thing you know, here you go, a base hit.

A great job by Salvy Perez, future Hall of Famer, just getting the bat on the ball, and that would bring two more in, and then Bobby Witt's a special player, and you look up.

You were up one-nothing, you're now down five-one.

Man, it just blows your mind.

We were just sitting up here salivating the first batter of the game, how he set him up and put him up away with two back-to-back changeups.

Yeah.

And you and I both went, "Woo!

Did you see that changeup?

Woo!

Where has that been at night?

Oh my goodness."

Maybe he'll come out in command and have a little better for his fast, feel for his fastball, slow things down a little bit.

But f- when you have a reliever mentality, and I know what the A's are trying to do, 'cause one of the hardest things to do in this business is to get starting pitching.

If you have a guy that's capable of showing you that he's able to do it, you're gonna do everything that you possibly can to find out if you can figure something out to get this guy turned in the right direction.

He shows signs of it, but as the innings go on, a lot of times you get to the, "Well, I'm just gonna overpower guys," and you end up trying to overpower the strike zone, and that's something you just cannot do.

Can I give you a, super glass half full here?

Please do.

You look at Mason Barnett, and we're gonna talk about Jack Perkins a little bit later.

They're struggling as starters, but you see that they have strikeout stuff.

So it's okay in a season like this, to me, to keep running them out there.

You may not like the results, but you see the swing and miss, the grip it and rip it that they have, that in reality, when you start looking at next season, you like their arms.

As a one, two inning guy out of the bullpen who can strike guys out may be the best roles for them.

But you're gonna try them out as starters now.

Let's see what they got.

But you know you can put them back in the bullpen, and there could be a future there for them where they gotta just go get three outs or get six outs.

It might be a really good role for these guys, 'cause they do have, at times, swing and miss stuff.

You know, Tony, I just think that we're in a point in the season where you're making decisions and you're evaluating and everything that counts.

I, I'm okay with the half glass full, half glass empty, because I'm a half glass full guy.

But you and I were having a conversation and I'm like, "Man, let's get him out of here."

You said, "Well, let's leave him out there.

You know, uh..." And you say, "Well, you- This is in the green room while we're watching the game.

You, you, you say, "Sometimes you gotta lose the battle so you can win the war."

Well, it ain't gonna be no war, it won't even be a fight, if we continue running guys out there and letting them wear it and now we're just giving the game away, so we're trying to rest other guys.

I mean, next guy up.

I mean, because there's guys that are fighting for their Major League careers, just like people are fighting for their Major League jobs, so everything counts.

So I'm not gonna give passes, and I'm not saying that it's not from effort.

I know these guys are giving everything that they have, but this is a result driven business.

Either you win or you lose.

There ain't no ties.

That don't count in this here business.

So just saying, man.

Y- Y- The expectation, and I'll say it once and I'll say it 100 times, much is given, much is expected.

So you're, you're not buying my glass half full?

No, this one is There ain't even a shot left to buy in this beer.

I got 37 games left I gotta sell here, Shooty

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