Khrush, indeed: Homers in 6 straight games
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OAKLAND -- Khris Davis making an impact for the A’s in 2021 was viewed as a long shot when the club first announced his signing to a Minor League deal on Aug. 4. Just a few weeks later, it seems like an intriguing possibility.
For the sixth straight game, Davis hit a home run for Triple-A Las Vegas on Saturday night, continuing what appears to be a resurgence of his power stroke. Since joining the Las Vegas Aviators on Aug. 12, the 33-year-old designated hitter has hit .377 with nine homers, three doubles, two triples and 23 RBIs in 13 games, entering Sunday.
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With rosters expanding from 26 to 28 on Sept. 1, Davis has forced himself onto Oakland’s radar for a possible callup.
“You can’t help but see what he’s doing,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “For a while here, he was the guy. Just to see his spirit again, I’ve been going back and forth with him via text -- it’s all about his mood and how he feels. And it’s really good right now.”
A return to the A’s would be quite the comeback story. Traded to Texas in February in a five-player deal that netted the A’s shortstop Elvis Andrus, Davis struggled with the Rangers to the point that he was released after playing only 22 games and hitting .157 with two homers.
“We’ll see where we go from here with it,” Melvin said. “But it’s been really impressive to see. It feels like he’s hitting a homer a day right now, because he is.”
If Davis does end up getting called up, A’s third baseman Matt Chapman will have been partially responsible for making it happen. Shortly after Davis was released in June, Chapman made the call to his former teammate and pushed him to reach out to the organization about making a comeback.
Chapman was around for most of Davis’ first tenure with Oakland, which included a run as baseball’s most prolific power hitter. (Davis led the Majors with 133 home runs from 2016-18.) So watching Davis go through this impressive run in the Minors does not come as a surprise.
“I’ve been keeping up,” Chapman said. “K.D. is capable of great things. It’s unfortunate how the last year or so went, but I still think K.D. is the same guy. A confident K.D. is a dangerous K.D., and it shows right now. I would like to think I facilitated [his return] a little bit.”