Thoughts On A Most Satistying & Important Win

How big can a win really be on April 24th with 137 games left to play? The answer is that you can’t view such a game as “essential” no matter who the opponent or what the standings may be, as you could each game in 2012 as the season was winding down.

At the same time, though, not all games are of equal value even if they each count for exactly one win or one loss. Against the current division leader, last night’s game represented a “2 game swing” — if the A’s won they were going to end the series 2 games back of 1st place and if they lost they were going to end the series 4 games back.

So perhaps it’s fair to say that Thursday night’s game was exactly twice as important as some random game in May or July. That’s a lot, even if it’s essential to keep perspective on the marathon, not sprint, that is a baseball season.

“All In?”

So it was a relatively good day for a manager to go “all in” to win, even if in reality “all in” really means “mostly in”. Not “pitch your closer and set up man 5 days in a row” level, as Bob Melvin did the last week of the magical 2012 season.

But you could see signs that Mark Kotsay viewed Thursday’s game as being at least twice as important as a normal game:

- JT Ginn was not given the chance to work all the way the 4th inning even though he was at only 71 pitches and had just gotten the red hot Wyatt Langford to hit a chopper so weak Gio Urshela had no play on it.

With a LH batter (Joc Pederson) coming up, Kotsay pivoted to the bullpen for Hogan Harris in a move that signaled this game was not about player development it was about trying to keep the game winnable if at all possible.

- Even though the A’s were trailing by a run, Justin Sterner got up to throw in the bullpen suggesting Kotsay was open to utilizing his best relievers even if trailing by a little. (Tyler Ferguson also warmed up later but only along side Grant Holman, which suggests he was only coming in if the A’s scored.)

- With the A’s threatening in the 6th and the score still 3-2, Nick Kurtz was lifted against the LH reliever Hoby Milner to get Miguel Andujar to the plate — another clear signal that player development and “let’s see what he can do” was taking a back seat for a day while the A’s tried to win the series against their division rival.

What We Saw

- Thanks to the great work of unlikely heroes Hogan Harris, Noah Murdock, and Grant Holman, who blanked the Rangers for 5.1 IP on one hit, the A’s stayed within a run from the 4th inning on.

The underbelly of the A’s bullpen may be soft like every team’s, but it also has considerable talent and can step up on a good day. Thursday was a good day.

- Similarly, the A’s bench came up huge in the 9th with Max Schuemann drawing a walk by patiently spitting on a tough 3-2 slider that just missed and Luis Urias smacking a base hit that was going to put runners at the corners with 1 out even if it hadn’t been kicked around.

The A’s do have admirable depth right now to where Urias can slot in for an injured Zack Gelof and a demoted Max Muncy and Holman can assume the “next man up” role in the bullpen and fire 2 perfect innings.

- Jacob Wilson might be one of the strangest hitting anomalies in the game right now with his 1 BB and 4 K, but he’s hitting .330 in an era that finds precious few .300 hitters. Batting in the #2 hole his contact skills can be put to good use at times, and with the winning run at 2B and 2 outs it was a perfect spot for a guy who almost always puts the ball in play with a 1/3 chance of it being a hit.

- “Protection Is A Myth” Is A Myth

The line “protection is a myth” was put forth by The Book’s revelation that protection doesn’t reliably show up as a difference maker when subjected to statistical analysis.

The problem with the study is that it can’t really measure moments like Thursday’s 9th inning. Was protection a factor? Who knows?

What we do know is that Tyler Soderstrom was on deck, that he’s batting .292/.355/.615 for the season, .319/.398/.694 against RHP, and that with 1B open the Rangers elected to pitch to Wilson.

I think it’s a fair assumption that had, say, Schuemann pinch run for Soderstrom earlier in the game and been the on deck hitter, Bruce Bochy would have put up 4 fingers before Lawrence Butler’s fly ball hit Wyatt Langford’s mitt.

But given a “pick your poison” choice Bochy went with the RH/RH matchup, and his closer, Luke Jackson, went after Wilson rather than IBB him or even pitch around him. You can give Soderstrom a fair amount of credit for that scenario playing out.

Soderstrom: Magical Vortex

In a game the A’s really needed — or at the very least really wanted — it was uneasy to see Soderstrom in LF for just the second time in his professional career. The first time being the previous night.

But not to fear: Soderstrom apparently comes equipped with a fly ball repellent. He has now played 15 innings in LF and not one fly ball has been hit to him. He has fielded one double in the corner, which requires only picking the ball up and throwing it back — something only Miguel Andujar seems to struggle with — and he has watched 2 HRs land on the roof beyond the LF berm.

We will see how he handles the first fly ball if one is ever hit his way.

Opportunity knocks with the White Sox coming to town. They are not a team to take for granted, but they do represent a chance to do something for the first time and that is get over the .500 mark. Stay tuned...