A's Notes: Twins Take Opener; Langeliers, De Vries Injury Updates

The Minnesota Twins jumped out to a 1-0 lead just four batters into the game on a Josh Bell double, and they never looked back, ultimately defeating the Athletics 9-6 after a late rally by the home team.

The A's are no strangers to losing the first game of a series in Sacramento, with the loss on Monday night dropping them to 2-9 in such games. The only two wins the A's have mustered in such contests have been the home opener on April 3 against the Houston Astros and a June 15 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. 

Since June 16, the A's have gone just 15-45, which is the worst record in baseball in that span. The San Francisco Giants rank 29th in wins in this time period with 23. 

Jeffrey Springs lasted 4⅔ innings, giving up seven hits, four earned runs, two walks, and three strikeouts. Springs also gave up his 30th home run of the season, which has him in a three-way tie for second-most in MLB this season. Aaron Nola leads the way with 31. 

Both Henry Bolte (3-for-4) and Jeff McNeil (3-for-5) had big days at the plate, with Bolte scoring three times and McNeil driving home two and scoring once himself. 

Zack Gelof entered the game with an 0-for-18 slump, and after starting the evening 0-for-3, he singled on a sharp liner in the bottom of the eighth and added an RBI double in the ninth as part of a four-run frame for the A's. 

We posted an injury update for the whole list of A's players on the IL, and one commenter asked why some of the players had the "out for season" designation, and others, like Shea Langeliers, did not. 

The press release stated that Langeliers has started a hitting and throwing progression following surgery on his right knee on July 28. That does not mean that he's necessarily close to a return, however. 

"Baseball activity is a good sign," A's manager Mark Kotsay said before Monday's game. "Obviously he's not one of the guys on the [60-day IL]. I would never want to put out a statement that says 'he's going to make it back.'"

Essentially Kotsay is saying that he's active, but in the early stages of a recovery, so there is still a lot of work to do. Keeping him off the 60-day IL has kept his chances at returning this season alive, though to what degree is uncertain. The expectation has always seemed to be that any return would be a late-season one, so he won't be back imminently. 

Last week we reported that Leo De Vries has landed on the IL, and that his status was uncertain. When we saw that he'd been in San Jose, California, we reached out to a team representative to ask if he'd been at Stanford Medical for an injury check-up, and they said an update would be coming. 

On Monday, Martín Gallegos reported that De Vries "is dealing with a sore right shoulder and is currently in Arizona rehabbing. He is sidelined from throwing for four weeks." 

That should effectively end his season, with the Double-A regular season wrapping up in three weeks, on September 13. To make matters interesting, the Triple-A regular season ends on September 20, with the postseason to follow. 

We have not checked to see if a promotion for a few games to end the season would be an option for the organization to consider at this time, but we will look for an answer this week.