{"id":293869,"date":"2026-04-30T22:13:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/293869\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T22:13:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T22:13:08","slug":"as-promising-start-in-west-sacramento-2026-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/293869\/","title":{"rendered":"A’s promising start in West Sacramento 2026 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletics have gotten off to a promising start to their second season playing in West Sacramento. They entered Thursday\u2019s game in first place in the American League West, are one of just three teams in the AL with a winning record, and have seen their playoff probability jump 46% since the first week of the regular season, according to Baseball Reference.<\/p>\n

But given what they learned in 2025, the A\u2019s know their start to 2026 means little.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday they had an identical record to the first 29 games of last season (15-14), before later dropping 20 of 21 from May into early June in their worst stretch since the 1940s. It killed their chances at reaching the playoffs well before the All-Star break.<\/p>\n

The team finished 76-86 and struggled to create momentum during their first campaign in their new market, where crowds well below the 13,800-capacity at Sutter Health Park were the norm throughout last summer. The A\u2019s averaged 9,487 fans at home games.<\/p>\n

Their record outside of the historically bad stretch was 75-66, a pace that would have put them squarely in the Wild Card race. They believe if they play at that level in 2026 \u2014 and avoid any historic losing spells \u2014 their talented core of offensive players and improved pitching could break a postseason drought that goes back to 2020.<\/p>\n

\"Home Home plate ump John Libka talks with Athletics manager Mark Kotsay (7) in the first inning during a game at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento on Wednesday. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t look at the future \u2014 and you learn from the past,\u201d manager Mark Kotsay said before Wednesday\u2019s win improved the A\u2019s to 16-14. \u201c(We\u2019re) not really concerned about where we\u2019re at in the standings\u2019 perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Kotsay\u2019s point, first place is moot when the A\u2019s have played just 19% of their schedule \u2014 a similar position to where they were last year when they they seemed poised to compete for a playoff spot before playing like the worst team in baseball for more than three weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have experience in going through it,\u201d Kotsay said of his players. \u201cSo anytime you have experience of going through something, I think you\u2019re better for it. You learn through failure and obviously in that stretch we got a lot of it. And I think guys are better for it at this point. Any time you go through that, it\u2019s not fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added starting pitcher Luis Severino: \u201cI feel like last year when we lost 20 (of 21), we got way better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The A\u2019s have told their season ticket holders they will host postseason games at Sutter Health Park if they make the playoffs. They couldn\u2019t have done that in 2025 because they didn\u2019t have logistics for media seating and broadcasting equipment squared away to MLB standards.<\/p>\n

That meanings if the A\u2019s reach the World Series (Baseball Reference gives them a 12.6% chance of winning the pennant as of Thursday), the sport\u2019s biggest event could be played in West Sacramento\u2019s minor league stadium, with temporary media seating likely to be built beyond the left field wall and in premium club areas.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the longest of long shots, but getting there is only possible if the A\u2019s reach the postseason. So far they look like a team that has a chance to be in the mix.<\/p>\n

\"Athletics Athletics pitcher Luis Severino (40) reacts after Kansas City Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr. (7) flies out in the third inning during a game at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento on Wednesday. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

This story was originally published April 30, 2026 at 2:03 PM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Chris Biderman<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Chris Biderman covers sports and local news for the Sacramento Bee since joining in August 2018 to cover the San Francisco 49ers. He previously spent time with the Associated Press and USA Today Sports Media Group, and has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Athletic and on MLB.com. He is a current member of the Baseball Writers\u2019 Association of America and former member of the Pro Football Writers of America. The Santa Rosa native graduated with a degree in journalism from the Ohio State University.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletics have gotten off to a promising start to their second season playing in West Sacramento. They…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-293869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=293869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=293869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=293869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}