Behind the slugging of their star rookie Nick Kurtz, the Athletics swept the Kansas City Royals and split a series with the Houston Astros.
Results
FRI: ATH 6, KC 4
The Athletics opened their series vs. the Royals with a quality road win. Austin Wynns hit his first home run with the club, and Luis Urias also went deep. Leading 6-1 entering the 9th inning, the A’s held on for the victory despite a very shaky outing from closer Mason Miller (1 H, 2 BB, 3 ER). The win ended a 14-game away losing streak for Mark Kotsay’s squad.
SAT: ATH 4, KC 0
As I detailed in last week’s piece, Jacob Lopez is capable of spinning a gem. On Saturday vs. the Royals, he threw six innings of shutout baseball and allowed just three hits, walked one batter, and struck out nine. The A’s offense consisted of home runs from Max Muncy and Lawrence Butler and an RBI double from Luis Urias.
SUN: ATH 3, KC 2
Going for the sweep on Sunday, Austin Wynns hit a game-tying, two-run homer in the 6th inning. It was his second homer of the series. With the game still tied in the 9th, A’s top prospect Nick Kurtz took KC closer Carlos Estevez deep for the game-winning solo homer. Mason Miller struck out two batters to help lock down his 14th save of the season. It was the A’s first sweep since a mid-April series vs. the Chicago White Sox.
MON: ATH 3, HOU 1
Three home runs provided all of the scoring on Monday evening at Sutter Health Park. Jose Altuve took Mitch Spence deep in the 1st inning before JJ Bleday tied it up with his own solo shot in the 5th. With the game tied 1-1 in the 9th, Bryan Abreu walked Brent Rooker before Nick Kurtz walked it off with a 447 foot, two-run homer. That made it back-to-back games with game-winning home runs for the A’s first baseman.
TUE: HOU 13, ATH 3
After some solid performances on the mound in recent games, A’s pitching reverted back to their struggling form on Tuesday. JP Sears lasted just 3.1 innings and gave up five earned runs, including three home runs. It was 11-0 before the A’s scored three runs in the bottom of the 7th inning. The Astros added two more insurance runs in the 8th to secure the blowout win.
WED: HOU 11, ATH 4
For the second consecutive game, the Astros were knocking A’s pitching all around Sutter Health Park. Houston tallied TWENTY hits and all four pitchers for the A’s allowed at least one run. Tyler Ferguson had an especially brutal outing, allowing six hits and six earned runs while not lasting a full inning. On the bright side, Nick Kurtz continued to mash the ball as he homered in the 9th inning. He also had an RBI single earlier in the game.
THU: ATH 6, HOU 4
It was an exciting finale to the four-game set between AL West rivals. Home runs by Willie MacIver, Lawrence Butler, and Jacob Wilson (plus a run on a throwing error) had the A’s ahead 4-1 in the 8th inning. But then, J. T. Ginn put two runners on with two outs and Mason Miller entered for a four-out close opportunity. The first batter he faced, Victor Caratini, took the A’s closer deep to tie the game. Then, as he has multiple times in recent weeks, Nick Kurtz saved the day. The rookie slugger homered off of Houston’s star closer Josh Hader in the 10th to walk it off.
What Else?
- Since returning from injury, Nick Kurtz has been as advertised for the Athletics. In his last seven games, he is slashing .310/.333/.793 with four home runs. Among MLB hitters with at least 200 swings in 2025, he has the highest fast-swing rate (82.2%). Fast-swing rate shows the percentage of swings a player takes that reach 75 MPH. The rookie establishing himself as a middle of the order bat will be massive for the A’s roster construction moving forward.
- Voting is in full swing for the 2025 MLB All Star Game in Atlanta. Currently, Jacob Wilson sits in first among shortstops in the American League. The rookie phenom is second in the league in batting average (.359) behind only Aaron Judge and is tied with Judge for the league lead in hits (101). According to Baseball Savant, these are his percentiles in some key hitting categories: 96th in xBA, 100th in squared up %, 99th in whiff %, and 100th in K %.
- Luis Severino received a pretty significant contract from the Athletics in the off-season to lead the pitching staff. Thus far, the 31-year-old has not met that expectation. While his surface numbers aren’t great (2-7 record, 4.42 ERA), the metrics are potentially more concerning. His ability to miss bats is considerably down from 2024 as his whiff % is down from 21st percentile (22%) to 2nd percentile (16.6%) and strikeout rate is down from the 34th percentile (21.2%) to 9th percentile (15.9%). While he’s not missing bats, he’s also allowing more hard contact with a hard hit % increase from 35.6 % last season up to 42.2% this year and average exit velocity is up to 88.6 MPH from 87.1 MPH in 2024.
- Gunnar Hoglund’s 2025 season appears to be over after just six starts. The 25-year-old starting pitcher underwent hip surgery that will likely put him on the shelf for the rest of his rookie season.
- Meanwhile, Ken Waldichuk is working his way back and will start a rehab assignment with Low-A Stockton on 6/22. He could factor into the second half rotation for the Athletics.
System Spotlight
Max Durrington: He was signed from Australia as a 17-year-old in 2024. The son of a former MLB infielder, Max has gotten off to a nice start with the Athletics in the Arizona Complex League. Playing mostly 2B with some LF mixed in, he has a .745 OPS and six steals through 32 games.
Sam Stuhr: After a very rough month of May, Stuhr has been excellent so far in June for Stockton. A 5th round pick in last year’s draft, the 22-year-old RHP has thrown 10 innings in June and allowed zero runs. His last outing was his first start of the month, and he pitched five innings, gave up just two hits, walked one, and struck out three.
Darell Hernaiz: After struggling in his first MLB action in 2024, Hernaiz is putting together a solid season with the Aviators. Still just 23 years old, he’s hitting .302 in June with a pair of home runs. There’s no reason that he can’t work his way back into the MLB mix at the hot corner if he keeps up his quality play in Triple-A.
What’s Next?
The A’s welcome fan favorite Stephen Vogt and his Cleveland Guardians to town for a weekend series. Then, they will travel to the Motor City for a showdown with the Detroit Tigers, who sit atop the MLB standings.
(Top photo of Nick Kurtz headshot. Courtesy: Athletics)
