Little adjustments made all the difference for Athletics starter James Kaprielian on Saturday.
He was pegged with his second loss of the season as Oakland dropped its eighth straight game 1-0 to the Minnesota Twins, but manager Mark Kotsay believes the “L” next to Kaprielian’s name didn’t reflect his effort on the Target Field mound.
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“Kap did an awesome job today,” Kotsay told reporters after the game. “He commanded the baseball … fastball had some life to it, the slider had depth to it. That was a really good pitching performance for him coming off his last start.”
In his first start of the season against the Cleveland Guardians on May 1, Kaprielian lasted just two innings after giving up four earned runs on three hits and four walks. He only struck out two batters during that start, but fanned seven Twins across 5 2/3 innings on Saturday and walked two en route to a one-run outing.
Following his second start of the season, Kaprielian’s ERA fell from 18.00 to 5.87.
Kaprielian told reporters after the game that minor changes between his last start and now helped him feel more comfortable on the mound. He even made adjustments as the game went on that gave his pitches more pop.
“I don’t know if anyone noticed, but I moved my hands up in the second inning, just kind of felt more comfortable timing-wise, more on top of the baseball, quicker to the plate,” Kaprielian said. “And then stuff started to play up a little bit because of it … It’s kind of a mixture of things.”
Saturday’s loss marked the second straight game the A’s lost by a one-run margin, and Oakland hitters have struck out 26 times at the plate in the first two games of the three-game series with Minnesota.
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Fifteen of those strikeouts came on Saturday -- a season-high for Twins pitchers -- and Kotsay expressed optimism that the A’s lineup will eventually make the most of their starters’ stellar efforts.
“It’s a part of this grind that we’re in,” Kotsay said after the game. “... There in the ninth again, we got guys on base. So these guys are continuing to fight. We’re in a tough stretch and we’ve got to continue to stay together as a group and just get through this, find a way to win a baseball game.”
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Kotsay said he saw a “different” Kaprielian on Saturday than the one he saw on May 1, calling him a competitor. His lone mistake came in the bottom of the sixth inning when Jorge Polanco homered on a hanging slider.
As the A’s young roster continues to try and figure things out at the plate and avoid a third consecutive sweep on Sunday, Kaprielian is going to keep on making the right adjustments in preparation for his next start.
“It’s been helpful so far,” he said. “So I’m going to continue to do that and hopefully have a better outing next time, too.”