Mark Kotsay, Henry Bolte recap Athletics' loss to Rangers to even series
Athletics manager Mark Kotsay and rookie Henry Bolte speak with the media after a 5-3 loss to the Texas Rangers on Saturday at Sutter Health Park.
Mark Kotsay, Henry Bolte recap Athletics' loss to Rangers to even series originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Video Transcript
Start with, JT again.
It was kind of a tough sequence there with Seager.
I think it was 3-0 with RBI, and then one pitch later, the two run homer.
Overall though, how do you guys kind of see his outing tonight?
Yeah, overall I thought, you know, in the fifth inning he got into a little bit of trouble and ended up working his way out, only giving up one run.
You know, JT, obviously he's been our best this year, so, you know, in the seven- or in the, in the sixth I think, like you said, the 3-0 pitch, wasn't a bad pitch.
Seager got a, you know, base hit up the middle.
And then just the, the cutter that was supposed to be down and away to Langford just stayed middle.
So, you know, overall a line like this in this ballpark, four runs, six innings, you know, you, you don't walk off here saying it's a bad outing by any means.
He had seven, seven punch-outs, I think one walk.
So, you know, maybe not his best night, but he gave ourselves a, a chance to win a game tonight.
You talked about Bolte before the game a little bit and his adjustments.
What do you think of tonight just seeing him kind of flying around, hitting the home run obviously, but also just kind of making things happen at the plate?
Yeah, you know, I mean this, this is a kid that's exciting.
Like we- we're- we're really excited about him and his future and, and as we talked about him in pre-game, the adjustments he's been able to make, showed up tonight again, keeping that ball fair, off the foul pole for a three run homer to put us up.
Like you said, you know, when, when he's at the top leading off against lefties, you feel good about, the opportunity to get out and, and get some runs with him going.
What have you seen from, Basso since he's come up?
He's had some pretty good outings since he, I guess as a bullpen piece, has he shown you, you know, pretty good success here as of late?
Yeah, I think Basso's done a tremendous job, since he's been back.
You can see the confidence now in him, executing pitches.
You know, I think he, he's locating the baseball well.
You know, he might not be getting the strikeouts, but he's definitely getting the outs and, there's something to be said about that.
Yeah, it's not like the Rangers gave you guys a lot of chance.
Most of the opportunities were, were man in scoring position was with two outs.
So, you give credit to the Texas Rangers pitching for this defeat?
Yeah, I mean I, Gore pitched out of, out of, trouble.
I think I, I counted five innings that we had a runner in scoring position and we talk a lot about this, the two out hit, right?
The two out hit tonight we, we just couldn't get it.
I think first inning, third inning, fourth inning, fifth inning and sixth inning, is what I counted tonight that we had a runner in scoring position with two outs, either to, to, to, in the first to, to put a run on the board, in the third to add onto the lead, the fourth and the fifth, and then in the, there in the sixth we had a chance with a two out hit to tie the game.
So, their bullpen has pitched pretty well.
As a staff they've done a nice job.
Like you said, you know, the, the opportunities were there but they were there with two outs.
Yeah, and could you talk about the sequence of plays in the eighth inning that kept you in the game?
That great play and especially the throw by Arika and then the pickoff.
Yeah, I thought, you know, Arika's play in the hole was great.
He showed his arm strength.
You know, anytime, you know, you make a pitching change and you've got a reliever coming in that, that can get slow at times to deliver the ball you feel like they're gonna try to take an advantage of that and, you know, we had a pick called, which we executed.
The rundown was a little bit sloppy.
Kind of cleaned that, we need to clean that up.
But, overall, plays were executed in the eighth and gave us a chance for sure.
Down the line, foul bouncing before the fence and I thought it was foul.
Looked at Bob at, down at third base line and just, just telling me to keep running so I kept running and then kind of got a clue of what was going on after but yeah, definitely a, the crazy one.
You running like that, what you thought?
You was gonna get a standup triple or something like, you was just doing your business?
What's that?
When you was running just jetting around and so fast I thought- I was go- I was gonna, I was going until someone told me to stop.
I mean, I thought it bounced fair, foul, so I was going until someone told me either I'm, I'm out, it was out of play or whatever.
So I was, I was kind of just running until someone told me to stop.
Could you talk about your night overall?
The night you had at, at the plate.
Yeah, just, just trying to put the barrel on the ball and, and put together good at bats, you know.
Obviously leading off the game trying to just find any way on and was able to hit a single up the middle and, and you know, just taking that mentality into each at bat and trying to put the barrel on the ball, put up a good at bat.
How'd, that double, how close were you to trying to go to third there?
You know, I think the situation with two outs, kind of prevented me to do so.
No need to be at third with, with two, you know, I'm still in scoring position so I think maybe one out I, I might have pushed it but just game situation wasn't, was kind of telling me to, to hold up.
So, you know, usually you'd like to stretch those but depends what, what the situation is for sure.
What was it like being the leadoff tonight?
It was great.
I mean, any, I mean, I'm happy to hit wherever they want me, you know.
If, if I can go up there and set the table for the rest of the guys that's great.
But just going out there trying to get on base to, to start the game off and, and every time I'm at the, at the plate really.
You obviously, you had some success early on, then went through a little bit of a grind.
Do you feel like as of late, just for the last month or so you've kind of made the adjustments where you're feeling, you know, kind of like maybe you were earlier in the season in person?
Yeah.
Yeah, it definitely feels like I've turned the corner a little bit, you know.
Just regardless of the level that, you know, baseball's a marathon you're gonna go through ups and downs, have a great stretch, have some, some bad stretches.
It's been the way that it's been in my career in the past so it's, it's not a new thing but being able to get through that in the big leagues is, is definitely gives you some confidence that, hey, you can make adjustments.
You know the league's gonna adjust to you when you have a little success and in order to play for a long time you gotta make adjustments back so, you know, it'll be a never ending cycle obviously but so it gives you some confidence knowing that you can come out of the other side of that for sure.
So yeah.
Thank you.
