Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said, given the way the ball was flying at Las Vegas Ballpark, the team’s six-game series in Vegas would be an opportunity for the team to get its offense going.
And for players to try and get out of a slump.
A’s outfielder Lawrence Butler appears to be turning a corner after putting together solid performances in consecutive games in Las Vegas.
Butler went 2-for-2 in the A’s 6-4 win Friday over the Colorado Rockies in the series opener. Butler scored the go-ahead run in the seventh and then added an RBI single in the eighth.
“A great day for (Butler),” Kotsay said postgame on Friday. “It’s good to see him get results when he’s put in so much work.”
Butler came off the bench in the fifth inning to pinch hit for Colby Thomas and filled in Thomas’ spot in right field in the top of the sixth. It’s the second straight game Butler has come off the bench to produce.
In Wednesday’s 4-3 win over the Milwaukee Brewers, Butler hit a two-run home run to help the A’s score three runs in the seventh inning to take the lead.
“It felt good to be able to put the ball in play and see it hit the ground,” Butler said Friday. “I also got a clutch hit against a lefty to bring in another run. I’m just hoping things start turning for me.”
Butler entered Friday with a .175 batting average with four home runs and 17 RBIs. The 25-year-old has had a rough start to the month of June. From a six-game (June 2-9), Butler recorded a hit in one game, a two-hit performance against the Houston Astros on June 7.
Now, Butler has recorded three hits and three RBIs in his past two games. His home run against Milwaukee helped the A’s take two out of three games against the first-place team in the National League Central.
“It feels good to be able to help the team,” Butler said. “That’s all I really care about. That’s all any of us in here really care about is helping the team. Any time we can help the team, that’s huge.
Kotsay pointed to Butler’s first at-bat Friday as a possible sign of his slump ending. Butler drew a walk against Colorado’s Seth Halvorsen, laying off three sliders in the upper 90s.
“A game like that can get you going,” Kotsay said. “The at-bat to draw a walk was really the at-bat I think that opened him up. You could see how pumped he was about laying off three good sliders down below the zone.
“Then he gets the double off the fence (in the seventh, that led to Butler scoring the go-ahead run) and then the big hit in the eight.”
Said Butler of the walk: “(Halvorsen’s) a good pitcher. He’s throwing 99 (mph) … it’s pretty hard to hit 99 (mph) off the bench especially with a banger off-speed pitch that he has. That was a huge walk for me.”
Butler also made an over-the-shoulder catch in the top of the eighth inning on a fly ball that drifted deep into the right field corner with the A’s holding a 5-4 lead.
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
