The Oakland Athletics have struggled to score runs all season, but they found an elixir to those woes — at least for one night — with an 8-5 win over the Colorado Rockies on Friday night in Denver.
Oakland, which has the worst record in the majors, will try to make it two straight victories when the teams meet again Saturday night. The A’s will send Paul Blackburn (1-2, 5.06 ERA) against Chris Flexen (0-4, 7.71), who will be making his debut for Colorado.
Flexen has been designated for assignment twice this season — first by the Seattle Mariners and most recently the New York Mets. The Rockies signed him to a minor league deal two weeks ago and, with Chase Anderson going on the injured list, will be added to the 40-man roster before Saturday’s game.
Flexen is 3-2 with a 3.44 ERA in eight appearances — five starts — in his career against Oakland.
Blackburn, who has never faced Colorado, is coming off a solid outing against Houston last Saturday when he allowed just one run over 5 1/3 innings in an Oakland win. A repeat of that could take the pressure off the Athletics’ offense.
Oakland’s 376 runs this season are the fewest in the majors, an average of 3.58 runs per game. The A’s pounded out 14 hits and benefited from strong performances from veterans Tony Kemp (two doubles) and Ramon Laureano (solo home run).
Despite the A’s not yet reaching 30 wins yet this season — they are 29-76 — Kemp said he sees his young teammates striving to get better.
“It doesn’t really show up in the box scores, but you can tell by how the guys have been preparing each day that they’re just becoming pros each and every day,” Kemp said this week. “They’re putting in the work. I feel like that’s the biggest thing you can do, is come to the field with a good attitude and put the work in, and that’s what a lot of these younger guys have been doing.”
Colorado has young guys trying to make their marks in the big leagues, too. The Rockies have the worst record in the National League but have an eye on their future, which includes rookie Brenton Doyle.
Doyle made his major league debut on April 24, and despite hitting only .202, he has become a fixture in the spacious center field of Coors Field, making routine and highlight-reel plays.
It’s been a huge learning experience for the 25-year-old.
“The biggest thing, especially at Coors, is you can’t coast to balls,” Doyle said. “You’ve got to bust your butt to get there, because they can keep going. It’s being hungry for the ball, wanting the ball to be hit to you.”
While success at the plate has been elusive for the speedy Doyle, he works during batting practice on his defense to keep that sharp.
“I’m a big believer in quality of reps over quantity of reps,” Doyle said. “There are a couple of rounds of BP where I really try to treat it game-like. I take my reads and everything as seriously as I can. Since college and high school, I’ve done that, and it’s really translated to the game.”
–Field Level Media
