Athletics first baseman Nick Kurtz hits a single in the eighth inning of a game Saturday against the Houston Astros at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. The team debuted its gold “Sacramento” alternate jerseys, also giving them away to fans in attendance.
JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS
jvillegas@sacbee.com
There was a gold rush of sorts Saturday in West Sacramento.
Thousands of A’s fans, young and old, tall and small, poured into Sutter Health Park, greeted by smiling ushers who handed out jerseys by the van load. The gold tops had “Sacramento” in green lettering splashed across the front, an indicator that the much-criticized, vagabond franchise yielded a bit to a frustrated fan base, with consumers last year wondering why the club didn’t embrace the city with such perks.
The Athletics in 2025 had a logo of the Tower Bridge patched onto the sleeves of their uniforms, but no “Sacramento” or “Sac” on gear otherwise.
A’s players also wore the spiffy new gold tops, though theirs had names and numbers on the back. The A’s promoted the day as “Welcome to the show, Sacramento Golds,” but the feel-good energy evaporated on the playing field amid the muck of an 11-0 loss to the Houston Astros.
Fans started to file out of the park in the sixth inning, when Houston led 10-0, with a collective expression of dejected gold.
The Athletics embraced Sacramento on Saturday with a gold “Sacramento” jersey giveaway before the Athletics played the Houston Astros at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
The fashion trend won’t be a staple, but the team’s “Sacramento Saturdays” theme will include more giveaways, including caps and gloves. A’s fans throughout the club’s debut season in West Sacramento in 2025 demanded something more intimate with their team — anything with Sacramento on a uniform or a cap.
Fans aren’t naive. They know that Sutter Health Park is stop-over visit on the way to Vegas, where the franchise plans to move permanently in 2028 after their departure from Oakland following the 2024 season. Fans also surely noticed that the left sleeve of the gold jerseys includes a patch that reads “Las Vegas,” the same design and logo that is on the left-field fence.
“Having ‘Sacramento’ on our players, it’s about time, and it’s the right thing to do,” said Dolly Martin, a 63-year-old mother of five and grandmother of eight who lives in Davis.
An A’s fan since her youth in Oakland, Martin was flanked by four of those grandkids, everyone embracing their cool new digs. Martin added: “If the A’s are going to play here, then they need to have Sacramento on their uniforms for games. I love this.”
The A’s reported Saturday’s official paid attendance at 12,015, breaking the 12,000 threshold for the second straight contest after the team only did so seven times in 2025’s 81 home games.
Before the game, the A’s over the public address system encouraged fans to chant, “Sac-ra-mento,” which did not happen in 2025.
Rocco Sansieir, visiting from New Jersey, tries to get a player’s autograph before the Athletics played the Houston Astros on Saturday at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com Astros roar back
After falling to the A’s 11-4 on Friday night, Houston took advantage of shaky pitching to win for the sixth time in seven games while dropping the A’s to a Major League Baseball-worst 0-4 in day games.
The A’s (2-6) walked 13 batters, and the Astros had 18 hits and reached base a club-tying 32 times for a nine-inning game. Christian Walker had three RBIs and Joey Loperfido added two. Walker and Cam Smith homered for Houston, which improves to 6-3 and will play the A’s in the three-game series’ finale at 1:05 p.m. Sunday. The A’s will head into Sunday tied for MLB’s worst record.
Houston Astros batter Cam Smith is greeted by teammates after hitting a solo home run against the Athletics in the eighth inning Saturday at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com
Tatsuya Imai started on the mound for Houston and pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out nine. The A’s are 1-4 against right-handed pitchers early in the regular season.
“We didn’t do anything well today,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “That game was reflective of, in my opinion, past performances that we feel like we’ve put behind us, that we need to put behind us as a team.”
He added, “Obviously, 13 walks in the game…that is not reflective of the expectation level of our staff. We talk about beating ourselves all the time. Today, we completely beat ourselves.”
Athletics left fielder Tyler Soderstrom loses a ball hit by Houston Astros catcher Christian Vázquez in the sun during the third inning Saturday at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento. JOSÉ LUIS VILLEGAS jvillegas@sacbee.com Full circle for Astros manager
Astros manager Josue Espada knows this park, which went by Raley Field when he first played on it. That was in 2000, when he was a member of the first-ever Sacramento River Cats team.
He played in the first game in the history of the venue when the River Cats were the Triple-A club for the then-Oakland A’s (the San Francisco Giants have been the parent club for the River Cats since 2015).
A second-round draft pick of the A’s in 1996, Espada logged 40 games as an infielder for the River Cats in their debut season.
This story was originally published April 4, 2026 at 5:16 PM.
The Sacramento Bee
Joe Davidson has covered sports for The Sacramento Bee since 1989: preps, colleges, Kings and features. He was in early 2024 named the National Sports Media Association Sports Writer of the Year for California and he was in the fall of 2024 inducted into the California High School Football Hall of Fame. He is a 14-time award winner from the California Prep Sports Writer Association. In 2021, he was honored with the CIF Distinguished Service award. He is a member of the California Coaches Association Hall of Fame. Davidson participated in football and track in Oregon.