KANSAS CITY -- The Athletics’ season has turned to developing for the future, and in the past week, the A’s have gotten everything they could have wanted from Jacob Lopez and Max Muncy.
That was on full display Saturday in the Athletics’ 4-0 win against the Royals at Kauffman Stadium, where Lopez dealt six scoreless frames behind Muncy’s two-run blast in the second inning to clinch the series.
Lopez, who had been tagged with 12 earned runs in the two starts prior to his outings against the Orioles and Royals, has turned it around with 10 straight scoreless innings. Lopez has 14 strikeouts in his past two starts and reached the sixth inning for just the second time with the Athletics on Saturday by throwing 17 first-pitch strikes to the 23 batters he faced -- an adjustment the A’s wanted to see from their young left-hander after he needed 91 pitches to get through four frames vs. Baltimore.
“He made a commitment to what we talked about and he executed it, and that shows a lot of maturity, a lot of growth,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “When he’s in the strike zone and mixing his pitches, you saw how effective he can be today. … He did a great job setting the tone and giving us a quality start.”
Lopez earned his 2nd career win, his first since October 2023 at Toronto, by matching a career high with nine strikeouts and limiting the Royals to two singles after giving up a leadoff double to begin the game. It was the longest scoreless outing of his career.
“He’s got momentum right now,” Kotsay said. “He’s definitely feeling good about the way he’s throwing the baseball. Again, these young starters, you try to balance what you let them go through and when you try to protect them. And this is, obviously, a season for him that he’s got an opportunity in front of us to be a starter and grow in that role and really learn from the experiences, and I think we saw that from his last start to this start.”
That was evident in the third, when the Royals put together a two-out rally and had runners on second and third after Lopez was called for a disengagement violation. Instead of crumbling, he got Vinnie Pasquantino to fly out softly to right.
“Obviously, I don’t want to be in those situations, I want clean innings, but it was really fun,” Lopez said. “The crowd got very loud today and it kind of spiked up my adrenaline. I had a good time during that at-bat.”
Lopez’s outing was more than enough support for the Athletics’ offense, which has the third-best OPS (.736) in the American League. Most recently, that’s been driven by Muncy, the Athletics’ No. 7 prospect.
The A’s third baseman batted just .176 with a .490 OPS in his first 21 career games at the big league level before his demotion to Triple-A Las Vegas on April 23. He was recalled June 4 after slashing .325/.397/.504 in 31 games with the Aviators and has brought that pop -- and more -- in his return to the A’s lineup.
Including Muncy’s latest homer Saturday, he’s now batting .270 (10-for-37) with four homers and 10 RBIs in the nine games since his callup.
“I think he’s just more comfortable,” Kotsay said. “I think the game’s slowing down for him. This kid, the bat has always been special. It’s been explosive in terms of just the exit velos that he can generate.
“This game at this level is about confidence and he didn’t really get off to a great start, but bringing him back here, we’ve seen it with a few players … when they come back and their confidence aligns with the game slowing down, it can be special. He’s showing that right now.”
Muncy said he worked on mechanical adjustments to his batting stance to stay more balanced so he can hit the ball to all fields. Not only has that change led to more success, but it’s altered how he feels now when he steps up to the plate.
“ … Once you have a stretch like this, I feel like it gives you confidence, like, ‘You know what? I can do this at this level. I can perform here,’” Muncy said. “It’s just a matter of consistently doing it now.”
Both Lopez and Muncy have spent time in Triple-A this season, working to figure out how to succeed in the big leagues. This past week has proven they belong, and they’re enjoying every step of it.
“It’s awesome, especially when you were down there and the conversations you have with guys in Triple-A about going up, maybe nerves or wondering what’s going to happen,” Muncy said. “And seeing them come up and do well, like, that’s all we talk about down there. So to see it happen up here, and I can be up here with them, it’s just been awesome.”