Mark Kotsay and Gage Jump react to Athletics' walk-off loss vs. Giants
Athletics manager Mark Kotsay and starter Gage Jump speak with the media after the 2-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday at Oracle Park.
Mark Kotsay and Gage Jump react to Athletics' walk-off loss vs. Giants originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
We've seen with Alvarado here, since the Vegas series, seems like the home run's been kind of an issue for him.
Yeah, just mistakes in the middle.
you know, it doesn't matter how hard you throw.
The velocity's still there.
It's 99, 98. but when you make mistakes in the middle of the plate, these are big league hitters, and, you know, they, they can do damage.
So, you know, tough night for, for Elvis.
obviously coming off, a home stand where, you know, we had some issues with the home run as well.
and you pinch hit for Wilson there.
I know you had that player earlier.
Was that part of the reason?
Yeah, I mean, the at bat prior to Wilson's swings were, were not good.
He's, gave us everything he had, and, you know, in that situation with the opportunity to add on to the lead, without him being able to swing, I made the decision to take him out of the game.
What, what do you think happened with him in that, play in the game, home plate?
You think he hurt something or something?
Hurt his shoulder again.
Yep.
So I don't have a report on how bad it is, but enough to where he couldn't swing the bat.
Could you talk about Jump today?
Yeah, Gage had another nice night.
This is the reward, right?
You get nine strikeouts in a game, but you can only go five innings.
which, I mean, obviously it's, it's a, it's a start that we needed from him.
he, he had a nice, you know, a nice night where he got his punch outs, got swing and miss, and, pitch count became an issue at 100 pitches in five innings.
So, but overall he, he did his job tonight, and, I thought the bullpen, you know, outside of that last inning, did a nice job as well.
Medina pitched himself into trouble with the two walks, but got a big punch out to get out of it.
offensively it's less than nice.
Is it things just been running into some good pitching or how are you considering that?
Yeah, I mean, the pitching's been good.
but, obviously this is a tough offensive ballpark.
There's a lot of low-scoring games that happen in this park.
you know, offensively we came in swinging the bats pretty well, and, last two nights, you know, we, we haven't been able to, to put rallies together and, and get big hits.
How do you kind of evaluate that outing?
Seems like they've drawn off a lot of pitches, but, to complete five scoreless with nine Ks, just how do you view it, overall for yourself?
Yeah, I was, I was happy with it.
I think it was, it was one of those outings you gotta battle.
and I think they, yeah, they fouled a lot of, a lot of pitches off.
I think if I can be a little better, with, with not throwing the same pitch over and over again and expecting a different result.
but yeah, overall I was happy with it.
And overall, just how do you kind of, I guess, assess kind of the, what you've gone in your first six outings and kind of maybe the progress that you've been making from the start?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I think just looking at every single one as a whole, you know, seeing my execution charts, my count coverage, all of that, that's kind of what I focus on.
tonight I feel like I was falling behind a good bit, and they were trying to jump to the heater.
So overall, I was happy with it.
But, you know, there's still things I need to clean up.
But, that double play was huge by Kurtz.
but yeah, I wish I could go a little bit deeper.
Could you talk about the nine strikeouts, a lot of strikeouts?
in the intro you, you had a lot of strikeouts in the minors as well.
Yeah, I mean, strikeouts are, are cool.
I like striking people out, but, if it takes eight, nine, 10 pitches to do so, then it's frustrating.
so, you know, my previous outings, I wasn't striking as many people out, but I was going six innings, seven innings.
so yeah, kind of trying to stay even keeled with it.
But, kind of looking back on those last couple outings and seeing the differences of, of quicker at-bats, quicker counts, and finishing batters faster.
