The Oakland Athletics are having a tough time with their defense. In a game against the Boston Red Sox on Monday night, the A’s made five errors in the first three innings. This makes them the first team in 29 years to have at least 13 mistakes in the field within the first five games of the season.
Manager Kotsay expressed concern about the team’s defensive performance, saying they need to improve. He was surprised by the number of errors made in the first five games and hopes to see a better response from the players in the upcoming games.
The errors started early in the game, with catcher Shea Langeliers making a mistake by throwing the ball into center field during a stolen base attempt by Jarren Duran. In the second inning, center fielder JJ Bleday dropped a fly ball, leading to a two-base error, and right fielder Lawrence Butler made an error on a sacrifice fly, allowing another run to score.
In the third inning, first baseman Ryan Noda and starter Joe Boyle each made errors, adding to the team’s defensive struggles.
Oakland’s performance was particularly disappointing, as they became the first team in seven years to make at least five errors in the first three innings of a game. The last time this happened was in 2017 against the New York Yankees.
The A’s have made at least one error in every game so far this season, with a total of 13 errors in the first five games. This is the most errors in the first five games of a season for the franchise since 1923.
Kotsay addressed the team before the game about their defensive issues and plans to continue working on improving their defense during pregame sessions.
“We go out and work on our defense every day,” he said. “It’s hard for me to understand why we’re making so many errors, but it happened tonight, and we’ll move forward and see how we do tomorrow.”
