A's elevate their game in the high altitude

DENVER -- The A’s came to Colorado to open a series with the Rockies last Friday as a club licking its wounds. It left on Sunday as a club that has stabilized itself somewhat as it heads back home to West Sacramento.

Though a 12-5 loss in the series finale Sunday afternoon at Coors Field wasn’t ideal, taking two of three on a quick road trip before returning to California has the A’s in a better collective frame of mind than when they set foot in Denver on the heels of a sweep by the Cubs in their first home series of the year.

The much-anticipated opening series against Chicago at Sutter Health Park, the temporary home of the A’s until they move into a new ballpark in Las Vegas, was anticlimactic. They were outscored, 35-9, over three games following a four-game season-opening split with the Mariners in Seattle.

As the A’s prepare for a challenging homestand against the Padres and Mets, looking for a reset in West Sacramento, here’s where they stand after a weekend in Denver:

Homers galore, but the lineup is no longer one-dimensional
After setting a franchise record by homering in their ninth consecutive game to open the season on Saturday, the A’s extended that streak to 10 thanks to long drives off the bats of Tyler Soderstrom and Lawrence Butler on Sunday.

The trouble entering the series in Colorado was that 16 of the 23 runs the A’s had scored on the season had come via homer (70%). Over the three games at Coors Field, seven of the 18 runs they scored (39%) came by way of the long ball. It was a more “complete offense,” as manager Mark Kotsay put it.

“We like our offense,” said Brent Rooker, who launched his fourth homer of the season on Saturday. “I think we’re just gonna continue to get better. We’ve shown flashes of what we can do early on in these first [few] games, but I think we’re only gonna get better and we haven’t reached our full potential yet.”

Butler heating up
Lawrence Butler, who signed a seven-year contract extension last month and posted a 1.026 OPS during Cactus League play, found himself batting just .167 seven games into the regular season.

Prior to the series opener in Denver, he said he wasn’t concerned with the slow start.

“It’s just baseball,” Butler said. “Sometimes you’re going to feel good and not get a hit, and sometimes you’re going to feel bad and get a hit. It’s just keeping a mindset of staying even-keeled and just going out there every day and putting in the work.”

The work paid off over the three games at Coors, in which Butler went 7-for-13 with a double and Sunday’s 435-foot homer over the center-field wall against a 98 mph fastball from Rockies No. 1 prospect Chase Dollander, who was making his MLB debut.

Pitching staff is a work in progress
Osvaldo Bido produced another solid start in his second outing of the season on Friday against the Rockies, giving up two runs over five innings. JP Sears followed with a decent performance on Saturday, though it wasn’t as strong as his season debut in Seattle. Sears pitched 6 1/3 innings and yielded three runs vs. the Rockies.

On Sunday, Joey Estes hoped to bounce back from a season debut in which he surrendered six runs over four innings against the Cubs last Monday. But he struggled again Sunday, giving up six runs over three innings.

“Obviously, the velo is down from last season,” Kotsay said, referring to Estes’ 91 mph average four-seam fastball velocity on Sunday as compared to his average of 92.4 mph in 2024. “But you can execute pitches and still get Major League hitters out. We didn’t execute pitches, left a lot of balls in the hitting zone and they capitalized today.”

The bullpen, which was pummeled in the Cubs series, was good over the first two games in Colorado (two runs over 8 2/3 innings). But it unraveled Sunday, when Mitch Spence and T.J. McFarland combined to give up six runs over five innings.

Feeling better with more work to do
Kotsay said his club’s mindset before leaving Colorado was in a better place than when it arrived.

But a big test awaits. The Padres and Mets are the homestand foes.

“When you win a series, you feel good about that,” Kotsay said. “We’ve got two really good teams coming in. … So we’ve got our work cut out for us on the homestand.”