Athletics' Mark Kotsay and Jack Perkins respond to 4-3 walk-off loss to Royals
Athletics manager Mark Kotsay and starter Jack Perkins speak to reporters after a 4-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday at Kauffman Stadium.
Athletics' Mark Kotsay and Jack Perkins respond to 4-3 walk-off loss to Royals originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
Mark, what did you see there with that, check swing by Tolbert, uh- I mean, the check swing isn't the game, right?
I mean, obviously it's a big moment.
We execute that and, get the call right, then we're one out away with still the bases loaded.
We worked ourselves into a jam with an E-2 and a, and a walk there in the, in the ninth.
The eighth inning really led to the ninth inning.
You know, three walks, really cost us just from a standpoint of having to bring Hogan in to shut that inning down.
So, you know, it's, it's things that we've been talking about with the bullpen coming in and having to execute and, and, not give up free bases.
So, at the end of the night, we, we beat ourselves in this game.
And then the, the catcher's inter- two nights in a row for Salvi is What's happening there?
It just looks like Salvi's taking like a check swing and, and catching, you know, the catcher's glove deep.
It's not, doesn't look like it's any attempt to swing, which, but it doesn't have to be in the rule book.
Maybe something we need to look at to clean up, but, obviously it, it didn't look like Salvi even thought that, that there was catcher's interference there.
It looked like he wanted to stay in the batter's box.
So, but again, it's the second night in a row we've got an E-2 with him.
On a positive note though, the opener really worked well.
Perkins, had to be one of his finer outings.
Yeah, I thought, Brady and Perk did a great job.
Like you said, you know, Perk's had his struggles.
We opened for him.
I thought the, the clean innings that he laid out tonight were, were great.
He looked sharper, obviously was attacking more.
You know, and I thought he did, I, I thought he did a great job in there.
It seemed like the opener really worked well for you guys tonight.
How did you feel coming in, in that, in that situation?
Yeah, it felt great.
You know, I've had a lot of experience out of the bullpen, whether it be last year or early on this year.
So, running out of the bullpen really wasn't too different for me.
But I thought, you know, Brady did a great job getting us going and getting us off to a good start.
You know, a lot of credit to him for the way he was throwing the ball and has been throwing the ball lately.
He's doing really great.
But yeah, felt good and, you know, it was good to have a clean one out there tonight.
I mean, do you think it's just a coincidence or was there something about coming in and, with the opener that, enabled you to have the, you know, a really great performance tonight?
Yeah, I don't really think the opener had anything to do with it.
You know, to be honest, I think it was just a shift in mindset.
You know, just going back out there and just competing to the standard that, I want to compete at, from a mental perspective.
You know, I have really good stuff.
I'm a power pitcher, and really just getting back out there and, and having the mindset that, you know, a hitter's not gonna hit me.
Just being uber confident, trusting my stuff, throwing every pitch as hard as I can, and just allowing myself to compete, and tonight I did that and the results showed.
Mark's talked about the young pitchers.
One thing you gotta do is just make the big pitch at the big moment.
That inning, you had two on one out, three one count on Jensen and got the double play.
The stat cast said it was a cutter.
Do you remember that sequence and what happened there with that double play ball?
Yeah, the cutter's kinda been my go-to behind in counts.
It's very similar to the fastball in velocity, but is, moves enough to get off the barrel, and you know, in that situation behind in the count, that's exactly what I was trying to do, throw something that he sees as fastball and something that kinda runs in off the barrel to get a ground ball there.
And, you know, Johnny did a great job calling that pitch there and, and going to it in that situation.
But, that's just kinda what I continue to learn, like what pitches can I go to to get that double play ball?
What pitches do I use for chase or punch?
What pitches do I use for weak contact?
The continual evolvement of my game and just learning who I am, what pitches I need to use when, and I think tonight was a great opportunity to see, the growth that I've made in terms of getting those ground balls and using the right pitches to get those ground balls.
I know the team is fresh from this loss, but, le- letting leads slip away seems to be kind of a recurring thing this season.
What is the level of frustration of that repeating itself?
Yeah, I mean, I think all of us, we come in here each day with the right mindset.
We all work hard.
We all do our very best to give the team a chance to win.
I mean, I'm one that really can't speak too highly on that just because, you know, I haven't done my job this year, so I take a lot of credit for a lot of the losses that I've been a part of.
But I don't think it's a matter of, you know, work ethic or want to or will to win as a team.
I think every at bat, every pitch, we go out there and we try our absolute best to do that.
We're a very young team, m- me, myself included, where we continue to learn and evolve and, I think that's just what we have to take it as.
Like failure sucks.
Losing sucks.
But you know, if we can grow from it, we can learn from it, we can get better because of it, then it's worth it.
You know?
And I think that's just kinda how we have to approach, the remaining games that we have this year is, you know, how can we learn?
How can we improve and become the team and players personally that we wanna be and, and look forward to, to finish strong this year and going into next year?
