WASHINGTON -- Colby Thomas couldn’t contain the huge smile on his face as he excitedly raised his arms and gazed into the Athletics’ dugout while rounding the bases at Nationals Park.
Above all else, the standout tool that carried Thomas to the Majors as the A’s No. 4 prospect was his 60-grade power. It certainly showed through at Triple-A Las Vegas over the past two years, with his 49 home runs the fourth most among all Minor League hitters since the start of the 2024 season.
It took a couple of big league stints, but Thomas finally flexed that tremendous power with the A’s, launching his first career Major League home run -- a 406-foot two-run blast to center off Mitchell Parker -- in the second inning of Thursday’s 6-0 victory over the Nationals and making that satisfying trip around the diamond.
“It felt awesome,” said Thomas, who let out a sigh of relief when asked about the homer. “Right off the bat, I knew that the ball should have gone out. I was just hoping the wind wasn’t going to bring it back.”
Considering the high expectations, it hasn’t been the ideal start for Thomas, who entered the day batting just .129 with a .423 OPS, one RBI and 19 strikeouts over his first 15 games. With three RBIs on Thursday -- he also drove in a run on a sacrifice fly in the fourth -- the 24-year-old outfielder got a much-needed confidence boost after working on adjustments to his stance with A’s director of hitting Darren Bush over the past few days.
“It’s tough going up there and punching out in a tight game when you want to score a guy,” Thomas said. “It feels really good to do something positive where I feel like I helped the team.”
While Thomas shined at the plate, another rookie starred on the mound in Jacob Lopez. The 27-year-old left-hander produced without question his best start as a big leaguer with a masterful performance, silencing the Nationals across 7 2/3 scoreless innings and allowing just three hits with no walks and 10 strikeouts.
Lopez became the first A’s starting pitcher with 10 strikeouts and no walks in an outing since Cole Irvin (11 strikeouts, no walks) on Aug. 24, 2022 against the Marlins and the first A’s rookie starter to do so since Dan Straily (11 strikeouts, no walks) on April 5, 2013 at Houston.
“He was dotting his locations,” A’s catcher Willie MacIver said. “He was mixing well. I mean, he’s landing four pitches, plus three different fastballs with some elite angle to his pitching. He’s just a dog out there, bro. His competitive spirit is like, ‘Screw you, I’m coming after you.’ That’s why he’s really good.”
Dating back to his start against the Astros on July 26, Lopez has now gone 17 consecutive innings without allowing a run. According to Elias, this marks the first scoreless streak by an A’s starter since Sean Manaea, who went 17 scoreless in 2016 from July 10-27. However, Manaea’s span included a game in between in which he allowed two runs as a reliever on July 17.
What stood out most about this outing for Lopez was his efficiency. Coming into the afternoon, out of 155 pitchers who had made at least 10 starts this season, only Lance McCullers Jr. (20.6) averaged more pitches per inning than Lopez (18.5).
On Thursday, Lopez pounded the zone by throwing strikes for 82 of his 114 total pitches. At 90 pitches through seven innings, the only thing holding him back from a possible complete game was a long 17-pitch battle with Nathaniel Lowe in the eighth that featured 11 foul balls and ultimately ended with Lowe striking out.
“Honestly, I told myself, ‘Don’t be an idiot. Just try to throw strikes early.’” Lopez said with a laugh. “We all want to throw strikes, and I just focused on that a lot.”
Between Jacob Wilson and Nick Kurtz, there has been no shortage of rookie excellence for the A’s this season. Lopez, though, might be the most surprising rookie development.
Acquired along with Jeffrey Springs in a trade with the Rays this offseason, Lopez entered Spring Training mostly thought to be rotation depth for the A’s in the Minors. Following Thursday’s gem, Lopez ranks fourth among Major League rookies with 94 strikeouts, while his 3.59 ERA in 18 games (14 starts) is sixth-lowest among qualified MLB rookies.
“He was carving dudes up in Triple-A at the beginning of the year,” said Thomas, who began the season at Triple-A with Lopez. “I was like, ‘I don’t know why he’s here.’ He makes hitters who are good look not so good. That [outing today] was really awesome.”