Iron Man bat, renewed focus ends Kurtz's power drought

WEST SACRAMENTO -- Nick Kurtz, a self-proclaimed Marvel fanatic who broke out a special Iron Man-themed bat for Players’ Weekend, revealed his favorite infinity stone from the Marvel universe to be the Power Stone.

"There’s a good 'Guardians of the Galaxy' movie that it kind of gets introduced in,” Kurtz said. “So, [that one] is probably my favorite.”

Per the Marvel Database, the purple Power Stone grants its user immense physical strength and access to all the energy in the universe.

Maybe that Iron Man bat of Kurtz contained some power stone residue.

After going 15 consecutive games without a home run following his historic four-homer performance on July 25 in Houston, Kurtz has regained his power stroke since getting his hands on the Iron Man bat. The Athletics' rookie slugger homered with it for the second time over the past three days, bashing an opposite-field solo shot to left in Sunday’s 11-5 loss to the Angels at Sutter Health Park.

Kurtz’s 25th homer of the year was a 353-foot wall-scraper to lead off the bottom of the fifth and was the first of back-to-back homers for the A’s, with Shea Langeliers following up with his 26th of the season – a game-tying 427-foot missile to straightaway center – one pitch later.

"There was a little lull for whatever timeframe it was that he was kind of searching a little bit,” manager Mark Kotsay said of Kurtz. “The Friday night game, him staying on the baseball against the lefty was really positive.”

Kotsay was referring to Kurtz’s at-bat in the third inning of Friday’s win over the Halos. Facing left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, the 22-year-old first baseman worked an eight-pitch battle that resulted in him lining a single the opposite way to left.

Kurtz later went on to double in the fifth before breaking the homer drought with a three-run blast in the eighth.

"That got him back to where he needs to be,” Kotsay said. “The result was another home run today.”

For Kurtz, finding the power stroke first requires being able to see the ball well, which he said was the case for most of this three-game series. Then comes making the right swing decisions, like Sunday’s homer, which came on a 0-1 knuckle-curve from Angels starter José Soriano low and away that Kurtz managed to muscle out of the yard.

"It all kind of goes together,” Kurtz said. “You start with seeing the ball well, and when you swing at the right pitches, good things can happen.”

Even throughout the absence of the long ball, Kurtz had been making plenty of good things happen at the plate. He entered Sunday batting .306 (19-for-62) with a .434 on-base percentage in the 17 games since that four-homer game, making the most of how pitchers have quickly adjusted to the young slugger by feeding him far fewer quality pitches in the zone than he had previously been seeing.

Whether or not Kurtz goes on a heater in terms of power, it’s the approach he’s shown in those stretches in between that has shown what makes him an elite hitter.

"I think [power] is one of the things for me that’s going to come and go,” Kurtz said. “Hopefully, when it comes, it comes in bunches. But [A’s director of hitting Darren Bush] and Kots preach that we’re good hitters with power. We’re not power hitters. Being able to do it all, that’s the goal.”

Kurtz had a chance for his own superhero ending, coming to the plate in the bottom of the ninth of a tie game with a runner on first and no outs. But Angels closer Kenley Jansen seemingly wanted no part of the slugger, walking him on four pitches that were well out of the zone.

From there, the A’s failed to capitalize with two on and no outs, with Langeliers and Brent Rooker striking out back to back before Lawrence Butler popped out with the bases loaded. That missed opportunity led to the Angels busting out for six runs in the top of the 10th to avoid a three-game sweep.

"We had the right guys up [in the ninth],” Kotsay said. “We had the best hitters in our lineup, first and second with nobody out. I don’t know what the probability is of scoring a run there, but I think it’s pretty high. … Unfortunately, we just couldn’t take the game in the ninth, and things just got away from us in the 10th inning.”