Nick Kurtz looks to continue his personal power-fest when the rampaging Athletics oppose the Pittsburgh Pirates on Tuesday night at West Sacramento, Calif.
Kurtz had two homers and five RBIs in Monday’s series-opening 11-2 victory over Pittsburgh and leads the majors with eight blasts in June. Overall, he has gone deep 10 times in the past 16 games to raise his season total to 18.
Kurtz leads the majors in RBIs (57) and on-base percentage (.443). He ranks second with a 1.006 OPS while producing one of the best resumes in the majors.
Yet when it comes to starters in next month’s All-Star Game, you won’t find Kurtz’s name near the top.
Kurtz stood just fourth among American League first basemen with 269,658 votes when the initial tabulations were revealed Monday.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (603,014) of the Toronto Blue Jays is first, followed by Ben Rice (509,830) of the New York Yankees and Munetaka Murakami (437,107) of the Chicago White Sox.
“That doesn’t worry me much,” Kurtz said after delivering his fifth career multi-homer performance. “Going to the All-Star Game is cool, but the ultimate goal is what we can achieve as a team. Whether I go or not, the most important thing is that we win games.”
Athletics manager Mark Kotsay scanned the balloting and wasn’t impressed.
“It’s a little surprising for sure for Nick to be in fourth,” Kotsay said. “I would assume the voting is probably pretty close and we still have a little ways to go for Nick to change people’s minds.”
Athletics standout catcher Shea Langeliers, who shares the team homer lead with Kurtz, is running away with 715,625 votes.
Kurtz and Jeff McNeil each had three hits on Monday. McNeil also homered and drove in four runs as the A’s won for the sixth time in eight games.
Zack Gelof went 1-for-4 to increase his career-best hitting streak to 19 games. It is also the longest active streak in the majors.
The Athletics have scored 58 runs over their past seven games. They had 47 during a six-game run of games in Las Vegas before Monday’s showing.
Endy Rodriguez homered while going 3-for-3 with a walk for the Pirates, who lost for the eighth time in the past 10 games.
Monday’s shellacking dropped Pittsburgh below .500 for the first time since being 2-3 on March 31.
A two-out error by Pirates second baseman Brendan Lowe led to five Athletics’ runs in the seventh, capped by Kurtz’s three-run blast.
“It got away,” Pirates manager Don Kelly said. “(The A’s) put some good at-bats together and Kurtz got one up. He’s got super power and it barely got out.”
Rodriguez is 5-for-10 with two homers over the past four games.
“Endy had great at-bats,” Kelly said. “Hitting the ball to right field and that last one, being able to drive it (for a homer) to left center. He’s been swinging the bat well.”
Right-hander Mitch Keller (5-4, 5.14 ERA) takes the mound Tuesday for the Pirates.
Keller, 30, gave up five runs and seven hits over four innings in a home loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers last Thursday. He is 0-2 with a 12.79 ERA during a three-start winless span.
Keller is 0-3 with a 7.04 ERA in three career starts against the A’s. Kurtz (1-for-2), Langeliers (2-for-7), McNeil (2-for-17) and Lawrence Butler (1-for-6) have all homered off Keller.
Right-hander Jack Perkins (2-3, 6.25) is making his third straight start for the Athletics.
Perkins, 26, lasted four innings in each of his other starts. He gave up five runs and five hits in a loss to the host Houston Astros on June 5, and three runs and five hits in a no-decision at home against the Milwaukee Brewers last Wednesday.
Perkins is facing Pittsburgh for the first time.
–Field Level Media
