WEST SACRAMENTO - The Athletics keep needing Jeffrey Springs to steady things, and right now that’s exactly what isn’t happening.
Springs, who opened the 2026 season on a roll, ran into more trouble Tuesday night at Sutter Health Park as the A’s dropped their fourth straight, a 9-3 loss to the Dodgers. He was tagged for six runs on eight hits and four walks in 5 1/3 innings, and the rough night only added to a stretch that has turned sharply in the wrong direction.
After going 3-0 with a 1.46 ERA over his first four starts, Springs is now 3-8 on the year and has taken eight consecutive losing decisions, the longest such streak by an A’s pitcher within a season since Tyson Ross lost eight straight in 2012.
The damage has piled up over a longer runway, too. Over his last 14 starts, Springs is 0-8 with 56 earned runs allowed in 68 2/3 innings, a 7.34 ERA.
His 24 home runs allowed are the most in the Majors, and every one of them has come during that same 14-start stretch. Two more left the yard Tuesday: Tommy Edman hit a three-run homer in the third, and Miguel Rojas led off the sixth with a solo shot.
“Still kind of processing it,” Spring said of his outing. “Too many walks, for starters.
That’s too good of a team to give up free passes. I feel like the homer to Edman, slider kind of on the outer half [in an 0-0 count], he put a good swing on it.
I tip my cap. But the walk before is what’s frustrating.
The walks in the first [and third] inning scored.”
What makes the slide even more frustrating for Springs is that the underlying feel doesn’t seem broken. He said his stuff has been there, and Tuesday even showed a tick up in the average velocity of his fastball, slider, changeup and sweeper compared with his season norms. He also believed his previous outing in San Francisco was a step in the right direction after he held the Giants to three runs in 5 1/3 innings and did a better job keeping the ball down.
Against the Dodgers, though, the mistakes were elevated and paid for immediately. The two sliders that left the park - by Edman and Rojas - became the kind of costly pitches that have defined this rough patch.
“[The Dodgers] are a good hitting team for a reason,” Springs said. “It just comes down to, I need to execute better.
I feel like the stuff is fine. Just have to do a better job of executing, especially against a team like that.”
The A’s badly need more than just Springs to clean things up. With Zack Gelof, Brent Rooker, Jacob Wilson and Tyler Soderstrom all out injured, the offense is already short-handed, which puts even more pressure on the rotation to hold the line.
So far, that hasn’t happened - especially at home. Oakland’s pitchers now own a combined 6.31 ERA at Sutter Health Park, the highest home mark in the Majors. On the road, it’s a different story: a 3.73 ERA, fifth-best in baseball.
There is at least one area where Springs has delivered. Durability has not been the issue. After Tuesday, his 18 starts are tied for the most in the Major Leagues, a sign that the health concerns that followed him earlier in his career are not slowing him down now.
The challenge is turning that availability into results.
“You want to take the ball every fifth day,” Springs said. “Right now, it’s a little tough to see that [value], because you want to put together quality outings and give us a chance to win.
I just don’t feel like I’m doing that. But, I take a lot of pride in putting in the work in the offseason to take the ball every five days.
I’m going to continue to do that and try to figure it out.”
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