The A’s Inability To Play Well At Home Is Embarrassing
· Yahoo Sports
Don’t chalk it up to the mound, the sun, the wind, the crowds, or the clubhouse facilities. They are the same for both teams and if anything, the A’s should have a “home field advantage” in being more accustomed to the conditions.
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No, the A’s poor play at home appears to be a mental block they cannot figure out how to overcome, and it is costing them a chance to compete for the division and/or wild card. And it’s not just their record, which now stands at a pathetic 10-16. It’s how poorly they play to get there — while playing great on the road and showing that the same roster is in fact capable of winning games and playing crisp baseball.
The current homestand is just the latest debacle for a team that is now 46-61 at Sutter Health Park. The choking has occurred early and often, making the games just as dull as the outcome is inevitable. The A’s returned home 2.5 games up on the Seattle Mariners and just 4 days later sit 1.5 back after being swept and then running their fail-fest to 4 games in which they have been outscored 30-6.
Each of the last 2 games have been eerily similar. Both featured errors in the 1st inning on what should have been the most routine of plays, followed soon after by a crippling 3-run HR. Wednesday it was Jeff McNeil, somehow neglecting to make a short and easy flip to 2B and instead hurling a throw well wide of the 1B bag for an E4. Friday it was Nick Kurtz, opting not to plant and make an easy throw to the A’s best fielding pitcher, Luis Severino, to lead him to the bag, rushing for no reason and making an awkward and low throw for an E3.
While we’re on the subject of defense, the night and the homestand, and the A’s futility over 8 months now, was highlighted in the 9th last night when a trio of A’s chased after a lazy pop fly that Tyler Soderstrom had plenty of time to get to. But in their apparent zeal, infielders Zack Gelof and Alika Williams ignored their LFer calling for the ball and settling under it and as Soderstrom went to catch it his left arm banged into Gelof preventing him from catching the ball. It looked like a backyard of 11 year olds playing “3 flies up” and not like big leaguers navigating a routine play.
Sadly, defense may not even be the A’s biggest shortcoming at home. They just don’t know how to pitch at Sutter Health Park without giving up tons of runs, often a crooked number early that deflates the team and crowd, and gives the A’s an uphill battle symbolically represented by the slope of the berm.
In 2025 A’s pitchers racked up a 4.96 team ERA at home but apparently were not content with it, and so in 2026 that ERA has risen to 5.45. Keep in mind that ERA doesn’t even count 7 unearned runs surrendered in just the last two “first innings”. In 97 home games at Sutter Health Park, A’s pitchers have given up an astounding 170 HRs in 97 games (1.75 per game), most in MLB.
At this point it really does feel like a lot of it is mental. The A’s are very used to playing in West Sacramento now and their opponents regularly prove that it is a ballpark where pitchers are capable of throwing well, fielders can make routine plays, and HRs can be suppressed to a reasonable level. It has become impossible to excuse the A’s terrible play at home as being anything but self-inflicted and most likely not entirely a physical phenomenon.
As Yogi Berra said, “90% of the game is half mental.” Trouble is, there is no easy answer to mental blocks whether they surface in the form of “the yips” or a “here we go again” mindset. But to put it both bluntly and callously, the A’s flat out need to get over themselves and figure it out because the AL is generally weak and the A’s have assembled a team capable of posting a 3.39 team ERA, allowing just 1 HR/game, and posting first rate fielding stats — this is what they have done on the road over 31 games (17-14).
Contention is there for the taking and if the A’s could do nothing more than mirror their road play at home they would be sitting pretty at around 34-28 right now. The raw talent is there, and even the results are there when they’re not getting in their own way at home.
It’s time to figure it out once and for all, because if one prediction is solid it’s that the league is going to make you play half your games at home. So you may as well find a way to play well there and I would strongly recommend starting that new trend tonight.