Welcome to Monday A’s fans!
The Athletics’ Las Vegas series has officially wrapped up. The team went 4-2 in six games over the past week, taking two of three against both the Milwaukee Brewers and the Colorado Rockies. The A’s let that first game against Milwaukee slip through their fingers in that 15-14 loss so the squad could have easily gone 5-1 instead. Oh well. We’ll take what we got. The team still rose in the standing thanks to the successful stint in Las Vegas, a sneak peak of the A’s future home. Will the still-under-construction ballpark be as hitter-friendly as Las Vegas Ballpark was?
Now the team is back in Sacramento, continuing the massive “homestand” the A’s have gotten to enjoy this month. After playing host to two squads for six games under the Vegas sun, the team will now play host once again but now in Sacramento’s heat. The team is also now set to play their fourth game in four days, and we’re right in the middle of 32 games in 34 days. Tough stretch of the schedule but at least lots of home games.
We kick off the Sacramento stand with three against the Pittsburgh Pirates tonight. The Pirates have long been a bottom-dweller, making the postseason just three times (2013-2015) over the past 34 years. That 2015 season was also their last winning campaign, and they’ve finished either fourth or fifth in the NL Central since 2017. Things have not been easy for Pirates fans, but this year they finally have a fun squad to watch.
The Pirates enter this series with an even 36-36 record, fourth in a tough NL Central but good enough to be in the playoff hunt. They’re in a slight slump right now, having lost seven of their past ten contests. The team’s strength has come from their young pitching, which is among the best crop in the entire sport. Led by ace Paul Skenes the Buccos have amassed a plethora of options and are fourth in starter’s ERA in the National League. As good as their pitching has been though, the offense has been inconsistent. While they have multiple hitters than can make any good pitcher pay, they’ve yet to really put it all together at the same time. They’re a young team and rookies like star shortstop Konnor Griffin may grow as the season wears on, but they may be a season or two away from really making a mark. Athletics fans will be getting a closer look at a team that is in an incredibly similar spot as the A’s are right now.
Looking ahead to the pitching matchups, tonight will feature promising right-hander Jared Jones going up against fellow righty J.T. Ginn. Jones was one of Pittsburgh’s top pitching prospects just a couple years ago, but thanks to an elbow injury missed all of last season and the early portion of this year. He only recently just got activated off the IL and has made three starts for the big league squad. He looked rusty in his first start, which is to be expected, but looked better in his next two so he’ll be riding some momentum coming into this one. Ginn on the other hand is coming off one of his worst starts of the year when he allowed five runs to the Brewers, so he’ll be looking for a bounce back performance out of himself tonight.
Tuesday will be a battle between another pair of well-regarded righties in Mitch Keller and Jack Perkins. Keller, now in his eighth big league season, has always had high potential but hasn’t been able to put it all together at the big league level on any sort of consistent basis. Still, he’s been a serviceable mid-rotation arm for the Pirates for the past five seasons. He’d had a solid campaign up until recently. He’s gotten hit hard in his previous three starts, pushing his ERA from 3.64 to 5.14 which makes his season look worse than it’s been. The veteran will be opposed by the rookie Perkins, who will be making his third start since joining the starting rotation. His first two assignments offered flashes, but also left a lot to be desired so the A’s will be hoping to see some growth and progress in this outing from their young righty.
And wrapping things up on Thursday evening will be another righty-on-righty duel between Braxton Ashcraft and the returning Aaron Civale. Ashcraft is another well-regarded arm in the Pittsburgh system and he’s taken well to being a full-time starter for the first time. In 14 starts the young right-hander had a sparkly 3.30 ERA as the second-rounder is looking like a hit for the Buccos. He’ll be opposed supposedly by Aaron Civale, who will be activated off the injured list before this game. Civale has been on the shelf for just under three weeks thanks to right-shoulder tendinitis. Before that he’d gotten shelled in back-to-back starts, allowing 12 runs and pushing his season ERA from 2.70 up to 4.20, so like Keller his bottom-line stats don’t give the full picture of how well he’s pitched this season. He made one rehab start for the Aviators and looked as sharp as one can look: 4 1/3 innings pitched, no hits, no walks, seven punchouts. Civale looks ready to be activated and get back to pitching like he was for the majority of the season.
First pitch is at 6:40 tonight. Have a great start to your week everyone.
Leaving Las Vegas should definitely help the pitching staff:
We had a cycle down in the minors this weekend!
On Zack Gelof’s reeemergence:
Eh, could still be better though:
In case you missed recent roster shuffling:
