For a player like Nick Kurtz, who leads all rookies with 24 home runs and holds the second-highest slugging percentage in MLB among players with more than 300 at-bats, 15 games is a long time to go without hitting a home run.
The American League Rookie of the Year frontrunner has quickly established himself as one of the league’s premier power hitters, highlighted by one of the best single-game offensive performances in MLB history when he launched four home runs and tied the all-time total base record with 19.
But for the 15 games after that fateful July 25 matchup against the Houston Astros, Kurtz hadn’t hit a dinger and only had two extra-base hits, though his .724 on-base plus slugging percentage was still respectable. That streak ended on Friday.
Perhaps, for the rookie who is also a “huge Marvel nerd,” all he needed was a little Iron Man to break the mini-slump.
“We can go with the Iron Man bat,” Kurtz joked when asked if the bat played any part in his home run on Friday against the Los Angeles Angels. “No, though, I think it’s just baseball, just how it goes sometimes. It took a while to get another one after those four, but it’s all good. I always try to remember that everything happens for a reason. In due time, everything’s gonna work itself out.”
While Kurtz didn’t attribute his success directly to the custom bat — one of many used across the league as a part of MLB Players’ Weekend festivities — he said he would absolutely be using the red-and-yellow lumber again in Saturday’s game. He did, and he hit and single and drew two walks in the A’s 7-2 win.
Players’ Weekend began in 2017 as a way to showcase the personality of players through custom apparel and bats, nicknames used by announcers and more.
“It’s a cool weekend,” Kurtz said. “You get to learn about other people in this league, what they are interested in, maybe about their family and stuff like that. It’s been really cool to see different designs and to see the different stuff that people wear.”
Kotsay, Kurtz bond over superhero love
While A’s manager Mark Kotsay jokingly attributed Kurtz’s home run to the batting practice he threw to the 22-year-old before the game rather than the bat in a postgame news conference on Friday, he said on Saturday that he has bonded with his young star over their love of superheroes.
“OK, he’s back,” Kotsay said of his Marvel-loving rookie on Friday.
When asked Saturday, Kotsay said he would have used some kind of Superman-inspired bat if Players’ Weekend was around when he was playing, in part because he used to use “Kryptonite” by 3 Doors Down as his walkup song.
Kurtz, who said Iron Man is his favorite Marvel character, is a huge fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and said he has seen all of the movies in order multiple times. Thanks to chats with Kurtz, Kotsay said he has begun getting into Marvel and recently watched “Captain America: The First Avenger,” which he found “pretty entertaining.”
“I love all that stuff,” Kurtz said of Marvel. “It’s the kind of thing I want to showcase about myself.”
‘I gotta take the cake’
Another of the stars of the A’s Friday opener to Players’ Weekend was the team’s No. 5 prospect Colby Thomas, who went 3-for-3 with a key three-run home run. Thomas continued his hot streak by homering again on Saturday.
Unlike Kurtz, who showed out with his colorful bat, the 24-year-old outfielder said he preferred to use his standard bat because the consistent image helps him focus during games.
“I like having my bat look the same, because if not, it’s like a mental thing for me,” Thomas said. “All my bats are black barrel and gloss handle and if it’s the opposite, it’s weird, because I like to look at my bat, and when I look at it, if it’s not the same, it doesn’t feel right.”
When asked which of their teammates had the best designed bat, Kurtz and Thomas agreed it was infielder Max Muncy’s Mountain Dew Baja Blast themed bat.
While Muncy is currently on the 10-day injured list with a right-hand fracture his bat has still drawn a fair amount of press, but he told The Sacramento Bee nobody on the A’s would get to use his bat this year, despite mentioning the possibility previously, because he wants to be the first to use it next year when he is healthy.
“I would love to bring this bat out next year, probably, and use that, but I’ll probably come up with a couple more. I’ll try to make it a thing where I try to go for the best bat yearly,” Muncy said.
When asked if any of his teammate’s bats rivaled his Mountain Dew design Muncy’s answer was simple: “I gotta take the cake.”
Fans can see Kurtz’s Iron Man bat, among others, in a Sunday matinee to close the Players’ Weekend festivities as the A’s go for a home sweep of the Angels. The game will start at 1:05 p.m. at Sutter Health Park.