Barber: Khris Davis, Blake Treinen haven't helped A's run

OAKLAND - The A's won 59.9% of their games last year, good enough for an American League wild-card spot. This year they are winning at a 57% rate and in the mix for another playoff entry. They are, for the most part, a team with strengths and flaws that carried over from the previous season.

But two of the A's biggest single advantages have abandoned them in 2019. Last year, designated hitter Khris Davis and closer Blake Treinen were undoubtedly among the team's three most valuable players (along with third baseman Matt Chapman). This year, Davis and Treinen have been more liability than secret weapon.

That the A's have continued to win, and push teams like the Houston Astros (as they did in a multi-extra-inning game Friday night) while those two talents have gone south is one more feather in the cap of manager Bob Melvin and the culture he has built in Oakland. But it's hard to imagine this team making serious postseason noise if Davis and Treinen can't rediscover their magic.

Strangely, both of them began the season in fine form.

After closing out a game against Baltimore on June 17, Treinen had 16 saves and had blown chances at only two others. Opposing batters were hitting .238 against him, with an on-base percentage of .338 and a lowly slugging percentage of .354. Treinen was struggling with his control more than we had seen since he arrived in Oakland near the 2017 trade deadline, but was still a challenge to hit.

Then he had a disastrous ninth inning against Tampa Bay on June 20, giving up three runs without getting anyone out, and headed to the injured list with shoulder tightness a couple days later.

Treinen hasn't been the same since. Counting that blowup against the Rays, he entered Friday's game against Houston with a slash line of .267/.389/.550 since June 20. ERA isn't always a meaningful stat for relief pitchers, but Treinen's mark of 8.59 was arresting. He isn't just struggling with his control these days. Guys are hitting home runs against him - like, four within a span of four appearances prior to Friday.

Treinen not only has lost his status as A's closer, he isn't even setting up his replacement, Liam Hendriks. Friday, Treinen threw the seventh inning of a 2-2 game, leaving the eighth to Jake Diekman. In a game against Texas on July 26, he pitched the sixth, a sad come-down for a 2018 All-Star closer.

I happened to cover an A's game the day after that one, and I asked Melvin about Treinen.

“He understands, based on performance, and the way other guys are performing, where he is right now,” the manager said. “He looks forward to getting back in the role he had last year.”

And what about Melvin? Does he look forward to that as well? I asked him if the ideal configuration of A's relievers would have Treinen closing.

“I think our best team has him there and allows us to use Hendriks in another role,” Melvin acknowledged. “But Hendriks is pitching as well as any closer right now. These things shift around over the course of a season.”

Some good recent news for the skipper: Treinen was solid against the Astros on Friday. After Robinson Chirinos started the seventh with a soft single to center field, Treinen got three straight outs. He rang up leadoff man George Springer with a cutter on the inside corner, then got Jose Altuve swinging at a 95-mile-an-hour sinking fastball at the knees - on the eighth pitch of the at-bat.

Davis' 2019 funk is much more perplexing, and perhaps less fixable.

After hitting a home run against the Orioles on June 18, Davis was batting .242 (just a tad short of his usual .247), with 16 home runs. He had a .306 on-base percentage and a decent slugging percentage of .476. Then something happened to Davis and his bat sprouted holes.

Since June 19, Davis' slash line is .203/.288/.246. His OPS of .535 wouldn't keep a utility infielder on the roster. Most puzzling is Davis' sudden lack of pop. Through June 18, he was hitting 1 home run every 14.2 at-bats. Since then, it's 1 every 138. That's a pretty easy number to solve, since Davis has exactly one home run in that span of 41 games played.

And it's only getting worse. Davis is hitting .167 in August. His last extra-base hit was July 30. Friday, he went 0 for 5. The man who led the major leagues with 48 home runs last year, the guy with 133 dingers in his first three seasons with the A's, has forgotten how to hit the ball over the fence, and isn't hitting it much at all.

“He had a great BP yesterday,” Melvin said of Davis before Friday's game. “There have been games where he's had some really good swings, and then maybe not some, you know, maybe not consistent at-bats as the game goes along. We still expect it. I know he expects it out of himself. You know, it's the first kind of prolonged period he's been through since he's been here. Everybody goes through 'em. Everybody expects really big things out of him, because he's been so consistent here. But I do really believe at some point in time he's gonna break out, and when he does, you'll start to see the guy that you've seen here in the past.”

The A's must hope so, because Davis doesn't provide a lot of benefit beyond the long ball. He's an adventure in left field, which is why he has hit almost exclusively out of the designated hitter slot the past two seasons. When the A's recently played four games at National League parks - two in Chicago and two at Oracle Park - Davis didn't start any of them. His bat no longer outweighs his lack of glove.

I tried to engage Davis on the subject in the clubhouse before the game.

“No, I don't want to talk to you about my hitting,” he said.

Davis has never been a big talker. During this long slump, he has been virtually mute.

Davis' struggles, and Treinen's, haven't become glaring sore spots because Oakland has won at a pretty good clip since the Baltimore series that sent both players into their bizarre slides. But the A's will need more if they are to climb into a playoff spot - and they'll definitely need more if they hope to advance past the wild-card game.

The A's are a good team. But it's hard to imagine anyone fearing them as long as Khris Davis' bat is silent and Blake Treinen isn't getting guys out in the deep innings.

You can reach columnist Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Skinny_Post.