Jane Njoku

As the most experienced pitcher for the Oakland Athletics, Alex Wood felt it important that he led by example. 

Given this goal, Wood’s start to his career with the Athletics had not gone as he planned. Through seven starts, he built a 6.32 ERA, pitched once into the sixth inning and carried 1.98 WHIP that was the second highest behind only Houston Astros’ Hunter Brown (2.20) among the 127 Major League pitchers, with at least 25 innings this season. 

Coming off a day where the bullpen had to cover eight innings due to an early exit for Joe Boyle, the Athletics longed for a deep outing. Facing the defending World Series champions, Wood stepped up to deliver his best start yet for Oakland. He had six scoreless innings, permitting only two hits and one walk with three strikeouts. 

Wood’s strong effort set the Athletics up for the formula that has worked well for them this campaign. Get a strong outing from their starter, score enough runs early and and it off to a lights-out bullpen. 

Although this time, there was problem. Lucas Erceg conceded a go-ahead three-run homer to Corey Seager, after a two-run lead in the eight. This turned out to be the gamechanger in Oakland’s 4-2 defeat by the Rangers on Monday night at the Coliseum.

See: Allen solid, but ‘flat’ Cleveland Guardians struggle in field in finale.

Erceg, who entered the night afer permitting only two hits and three walks over his last night appearances, started the eight with a leadoff walk to pinch-hitter Josh Smith. That free pass set the modd for an uncharacteristics fram that witnessed the right-hander walk two batters and permit two hits. The most damaging one was Seager’s long ball on a 3-2 changeup with two outs. At the same time, closer Mason Miller was warm in the bullpen. 

“They made some moves by pinch-hitting against [Erceg],” said Athletics manager Mark Kotsay. “The Seager at-bat, 3-2 changeup, that’s why he makes [$325 million.] This is a small blip for Erceg. I’ve had nothing but confidence in him. He’s had nothing but success in that situation this season.”

Erceg’s blown save will highlighted, especially since it was the Athletics first loss this campaign when leading after seven innings. The offense, was just as complicit for its inability to cash in. Despite securing seven hits, Oakland went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left 

Erceg’s blown save will be magnified, given that it was the A’s first loss this season when leading after seven innings. The offense, however, was just as responsible for its inability to cash in. Despite collecting seven hits, the A’s went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left seven runners on base. Their two runs were on a pair of sacrifice flies by Darell Hernaiz in the second and Esteury Ruiz in the fifth. 

“We had a chance to add on,” Kotsay said. “Adding on against good teams is what you need to do to put them away. We’ve been able to add on as of late. But tonight, we couldn’t get that support we needed late and it ended up costing us.”

On a night where the Athletics blew a chance to close the distance on Texas, which entered first place while Oakland trails by three games, the upside is in Wood finally looking like he does at his best. He moved fast by pounding the zone with 54 of 78 pitches going for strikes and generating lots of weak contact. The average exit velocity of the 17 balls in play against him was only 89.7 mph. 

“The biggest thing for me is strikes,” Wood said. “I’m a strike thrower. … That was a big thing for me today. Going in and getting strike one and attacking guys. Usually, when you do that, you get some of those quick outs like we did tonight.”

Wood referred to his previous outing last week against the Pittsburgh Pirates as frustrating because he could attack the zone. Pulled after four innings against Pittsburgh, he threw only 53 of 93 total pitches for strikes that night.

Alex said he identified a mechnical flaw with his hand positioning, which he corrected before his start at the Yankee Stadium on April 25. This fix held him go 5 ⅔ innings of one-run ball. The issue happened again in last week’s start, but he fixed it for Monday’s start. 

“My hands had gravitated more towards the mid-line or in front of the mid-line of my body,” Wood said. “Going into New York, I had to make sure [my hands] were behind my mid-line. Last start, they kind of gravitated back toward where they had been. Today, I kept that in the back of my mind throughout the outing. It helped my changeup a lot and command in general. Hopefully, it’s something we can keep carrying over and keep filling up the zone.”

The San Antonio Spurs forward-center Victor Wembanyama has received the Wilt Chamberlain Trophy for the 2023-24 Kia NBA Rookie of the Year. 

Wembanyama got all 99 first-place votes from a media panel, making him the first unanimous Kia NBA Rookie of the Year since Karl-Anthony Towns in the 2015-16 season. 

The French national is the first player from his country to win the Kia NBA Rookie of the Year Award. This honour has been awarded annually since the 1952-53 season. Wembanyama is also the third player to get that honour with San Antonio. He joins winners like David Robinson (1989-90) and Tim Duncan (1997-98). 

In the 2023-24 regular season, Victor Wembanyama led all rookies in points (21.4), rebounds (10.6) and blocks (3.6) per match. Additionally, he ranks fourth in assists (3.9) and second in steals (1.2) per game. He is the second rookie to lead all league players in blocks per game in a season, joining others like Manute Bol (1985 -86).

Wembanyama and Bol are the only two rookies to lead the NBA in total blocks in a campaign since blocks were first recorded in the 1973-74 season. 

Victor became the first player to average up to 20.0 points, 10.0 rebounds and 3.0 blocks in fewer than 30 minutes per game in a season. He is the first player to gather 1,500 points, 700 rebounds, 250 assists, 250 blocks and 100 3-pointers made in a season.