Casey Schmitt's offensive outburst sinks Athletics in 6-4 loss to Giants
On "A's Cast," Chris Townsend and Steve Sax discuss the Athletics' 6-4 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Saturday at Sutter Health Park.
Casey Schmitt's offensive outburst sinks Athletics in 6-4 loss to Giants originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
A three-round fight, rivalry weekend.
Round one went to the Athletics.
Round two goes to the San Francisco Giants, six to four.
And it just goes to show, as we're sitting here and we're talking about how they're struggling to score runs, and how tough it's been for Tony Vitello and the Giants offense, on any given day.
They brought the offense today.
Luis Severino couldn't get it done.
Yeah.
And the Giants got a victory.
Yeah.
I mean, you're right, Tony, it could happen on any given day, and today was the Giants day.
And it's, completely the opposite of what you'd think about what may happen considering the way that Severino has been pitching.
It seems the Giants said, pretty much eliminated all of his other pitches and sat on that fastball, scattered it out pretty good, turned up the dial, and made some things happen.
So, it's a tough night for the pitching staff here.
But you know what?
You gotta come back tomorrow and take that last game.
Well, it's all about the, the rubber game, right?
Yeah.
We talked about this with the Cardinals.
They weren't able to get it done.
Gotta get it done tomorrow.
Yeah.
Bi- big time.
And you know, you're not gonna come out here and, and sweep teams.
I mean, you know, once in a while that's gonna happen but, it's all gonna be about tomorrow, and you're gonna chill, check the resilience, of this ball club tomorrow.
I think this is a different team from last year, and I think they can g- come out and win the series, and they should have this one, in their sights tomorrow for sure.
And definitely a tough one for Luis Severino, 'cause we talked about lately how well he's been throwing the baseball- Yeah and how he has thrown the be- the ball better at home.
Just didn't have it tonight.
Nope.
I know we might talk about in the game where he tweaked his ankle a little bit, but he just didn't seem like the same guy.
No, he didn't.
And, and it looked like he had hung a couple of pitches.
He was, you know, trying to dominate with his fastball.
They were all over that.
When he did try to throw a s- a sweeper, he hung a couple of those, and most notably the one to Casey Schmitt, the first one that he hit for a home run.
So when, you hang a slider like that, you know, and not trying to come down on Sevy because it's just part of the game.
You hang them and they'll bang them.
That's what major league hitters do.
Well, there's some nights where you gotta tip your cap, and when you look at the main part of the lineup, whether you're talking about Devers, Ademas, or Chapman- Yeah they haven't delivered this year.
But Casey Schmitt has.
Let's get to the Toyota Turning Point.
And Casey Schmitt had already hit a home run in the first inning.
You go to the fifth inning and Casey Schmitt would go yard again.
Two home runs for him in the game.
Yeah, this is the one that he hung right here.
A hanging slider that he, that he bolts out.
This ball was absolutely torched.
It had as much height as it did distance.
He's gonna hit the next one to right center field.
Check this out.
This is a fastball in the outer part of the plate, and Casey Schmitt just goes right with it.
Some kind of power, Tony.
I don't care where you're playing- Yeah to hit it that high up on the foul pole.
Yeah, when you go deep to left, and then you go deep to right- Yeah you gotta, you gotta tip your cap.
I mean, he's having a good year.
Yep.
And it's been a question, right?
'Cause you got guys with big contracts, they got a lot of money owed.
Yeah.
He's gotta play.
Yeah, he's gotta play.
There's no doubt about it.
And you know, he's versatile.
He's pretty malleable.
You can put him in, you know, th- third base where he usually plays.
He can play short.
He can go to second base.
Of course, the DH is a, is an easy spot.
But this guy can really swing the bat, and I've seen him evolve since he started at the River Cats, and he's just been on a terror since he came up to the big leagues.
This is kind of a bonafide major league hitter now.
And that is a problem that you see around baseball, is when you give out big contracts to guys- Yeah and all of a sudden somebody from your system comes up- It's like, uh-oh and all of a sudden he's a guy that's gotta play.
And you're like, "Well, we've got X amount of years of money committed to that guy, to that guy."
Yeah.
But he needs to play and, and you know, the bottom line is you wanna get better as a team.
He has to be in there every single day.
And if you don't have him playing at the best position for him, that could also hurt his offense.
That's gonna be a tough thing for Buster Posey and Tony Vitello going, going longterm.
You bet it is.
And, what, what can happen is, when a guy's starting to become a budding star, such as Casey Schmitt, and you have somebody else there, I mean, what are you gonna do?
You're gonna have to put down the guy that doesn't, that's making all that money.
And what it does is it stunts the productivity and the growth of a guy like Casey Schmitt.
I mean, who knows how good he can be.
We all know that he's a better hitter than Matt Chapman.
and you know, he's working on his craft, on defense.
So we'll see how that all turns out.
