'We’ve got to figure it out': A's fall to Tigers in sloppy, 3-error game

OAKLAND -- A player’s first 60 games is too small of a sample to make proclamations about their long-term future. When gauging the hot start of Zack Gelof, however, it is hard for the A’s not to be excited about what they have seen.

In what was a mostly forgettable 7-3 loss to the Tigers at the Coliseum on Thursday night, Gelof was one of the few A’s to produce a bright spot, extending his career-best hit streak to seven games by hustling out a single in the ninth inning.

Completing his 60th Major League game, Gelof continues to position himself alongside elite company. His 33 extra-base hits are the most by any A’s player over their first 60 career games in franchise history. Gelof’s 13 home runs through 60 games rank fourth-most. The three players ahead of him? Prolific sluggers Mark McGwire (22), Matt Olson (18) and Jose Canseco (14).

About two-thirds through September, Gelof -- who earned American League Rookie of the Month honors for August -- is building a case to repeat. Entering Thursday, the second baseman was hitting .310/.380/.535 with 10 extra-base hits and nine multi-hit performances in 18 September games.

“Day in and day out watching Zack go through his routine and his focus, he’s got the makeup,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “He’s got an innate ability to understand how to prepare for a game.”

For as promising as Gelof has looked early on, though, he also is not immune to rookie growing pains. In a sloppy defensive game that featured three A’s errors, Gelof was involved on a miscue in the fifth, as he was wrongly positioned on a throw from right fielder Brent Rooker on Zach McKinstry’s double that allowed McKinstry to take third and a run to score for Detroit.

“We talked about [playing clean baseball] pregame and then came out and laid an egg,” Kotsay said. “It’s part of baseball. It’s part of the maturation process with this young group. At times, it’s peaks and valleys. We’re in a little valley right now.”

Offensively, the A’s were shut down by left-hander Tark Skubal, who dominated over seven scoreless innings with 10 strikeouts, before plating home three runs in the ninth, two of which scored on Rooker’s 28th home run of the year.

“He’s been challenging all year,” Kotsay said of Skubal. “This kid has really thrown the ball well. His velo was a little lower tonight, but a three-pitch mix. His changeup is swing and miss. Our hitters were in between all night. Late on the heater and ahead of the breaking ball and changeup.

“At one point, I went to talk to our pitchers, especially [Ken Waldichuk] and said, ‘Hey, watch this guy.’ He was really dominating our hitters with that fastball-changeup mix. You can see how effective it was.”

In what the A’s hope can be a strong finish to this rebuilding 2023 campaign, the past week has been a reminder of the work that still needs to be done. Winless through the first seven games of a 10-game homestand, Thursday’s loss marked Oakland’s eighth consecutive defeat, one shy of matching its longest losing streak of the season.

“The challenge is to get out of that valley by playing a clean game, getting a good pitching performance and not waiting until the ninth inning to score runs,” Kotsay said. “We’ve got to figure it out. It’s not fun right now. We’ve got three games [at home] going into the weekend to try to play better baseball and be more competitive.”