A's Cast - A's Talk - April 11

April 12, 2026·40 min·3 clips

Michael Barabolt contrasts the A's first six games (.177 average, 527 OPS, no sacrifice flies) with the last eight games (.287 average, 782 OPS, 33 walks) as evidence the team stopped pressing.

Four wins change the mood. The show starts with Tyler Soderstrom's deep right-field homer and rides that 11-6 win over the Mets into a bigger look at an A's team suddenly piling up series wins. Three straight series wins will do that. Michael Barabolt sees this as another way to win, which keeps the talk close to the everyday grind instead of drifting into big declarations. Soderstrom brings the noise. His first homer of the year is a two-run shot, and the postgame read is simple enough: the players feel it. Then the phones take over. Greg calls in with the local angle on Jeff McNeil, a longtime San Luis Obispo-area name and an easy player for that community to claim. McNeil quickly becomes more than a hometown note. Greg calls him the hottest hitter on the A's right now and puts him into the leadoff debate. Butler gets the sharper critique. Greg does not love him at the top, mostly because the strikeouts feel too heavy for that spot, even with the speed and baseball sense. That is where the segment works best: regular A's talk, practical and a little stubborn. Should the top of the order lean toward contact, experience, and the career bat McNeil has shown? Jacob Wilson comes up too, along with a quick Jacob Lopez mix-up that keeps the segment loose and live. Still, nobody sounds ready for panic tinkering. The counter is plain: this lineup has been winning, and sometimes the move is to leave it alone. Kurtz stays part of the picture, and the debate keeps circling back to what the A's are doing now, not what a perfect lineup might look like on paper. Tomorrow adds the hook: a morning first pitch at Citi Field, the A's chasing their first sweep of the 2026 season and a chance to climb over .500.

As heard by us

A's bats stay loud, and the lineup debate stays pointed.

The A's 11-6 win over the Mets is built on an early burst, with Tyler Soderstrom's first homer of the year setting the tone and the club now in position for its first sweep of the 2026 season in New York.

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Why you'd press play

If you want the postgame argument after an 11-6 A's win, start here.

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