Need to get some wins this weekend
The A’s have left Los Angeles, leaving town with their tails tucked between their legs after getting swept by the Angels in a three-game series. They remain in last place at 26-44 and now also have the second-worst record in the American League, ahead of only the lowly Chicago White Sox. Now after an off-day the team will get back to the field when they start their weekend series in Kansas City facing the Royals for three games. Time to snap out of it, A’s.
- Royals W/L record: 34-35 (4th in AL Central)
- Run differential: -20
- Team OPS: .674 (26th of 30)
- Team ERA: 3.40 (5th of 30)
The Royals entered the season with raised expectations after their young core helped guide them to their first postseason appearance since their 2015 championship. So far here in 2025 they have gotten great results from their pitching staff but their offense has been a major let down, explaining why they’re right around the .500 mark and looking up at three other teams in their division. Time is quickly running out so the Royals need to turn things around or they could become sellers here pretty quick with the trade deadline fast approaching. They enter this series on a sour note, losing three straight and seven of their last 10.
Young superstar Bobby Witt Jr., last season’s MVP runner-up, is having a fine season but nowhere close to last year’s campaign. He’s still a dangerous hitter that A’s pitchers will need to be careful with. First baseman Vinnie Pasquantino is also having a good season through the first two and a half months, leading the team with 10 long balls. And third baseman Maikel Garcia is in the midst of a breakout campaign, leading the Royals with a .302 batting average.
Those three have been the majority of the Royals’ offense this year. Veteran catcher Salvador Perez has six home runs but has been a net negative in the lineup and is in the twilight of his career. None of the rest of the Royals’ everyday players have come close to league-average production and as a team the Royals have the least amount of home runs in all of baseball with just 43 big flies. We might also see former Athletic Mark Canha this weekend; he’s hitting just .247/.313/.282 in what is his age-36 season as he also puts the finishing touches on his successful career.
If it weren’t for the Kansas City pitching staff then the Royals might be battling with the Chicago White Sox for last place in the AL Central. Starting pitcher Kris Bubic has been fantastic since returning to the starting rotation this year, ranking fourth in the American League with a 1.92 ERA through 13 starts. He’s on his way to receiving some Cy Young votes but luckily for the A’s they’ll miss him this weekend. Michael Wacha has been awesome behind Bubic in the starting five, and Seth Lugo is having a repeat performance of his awesome 2024 season and has been one of the team’s rocks in the rotation. From there the quality drops off as Michael Lorenzen and Cole Ragans have ERA’s at or near 5. Ragans is now on the IL and the Royals have replaced him with left-hander Noah Cameron, who has come up and been terrific as a rookie and helped solidify the backend of the KC starting rotation. Add in a top-10 bullpen by ERA and you can see how their pitching has kept the team alive while the bats sputter.
The Athletics have announced that Luis Severino will get the ball for his 15th start of the season to start the series. He’s still on the prowl for his second win in an A’s uniform and will bring an ugly 4.77 ERA into tonight’s contest. He’s gotten hit hard in each of his last two contests so this game will be his opportunity to get back on track after a few rough outings, something he’s done a couple of time already this season. The veteran righty is 4-1 in six career starts against the Royals with a decent 4.24 ERA in those contests.
The next two nights for the A’s are state secrets that the club will only reveal at the last possible moment. We can make some educated guesses on who will be starting though. Left-handers Jacob Lopez and Sean Newcomb combined for seven shutout innings earlier in the week and the A’s could rock with that formula again and see if it works. And while we don’t know who will open, we pretty much know that Jeffrey Springs will be getting the ball as the bulk pitcher on Sunday morning to wrap up the series. He’s looked comfortable in his new role, going at least six innings and racking up at least seven strikeouts in both bulk outings.
Saturday afternoon will be right-hander Michael Wacha for the Royals. The longtime Cardinal is having his typical above-average season, ranking second on the team behind Bubic with a 3.01 ERA. He’s only ever pitched against the Green & Gold once in his 13-year career, allowing one run in five innings back in 2021 while with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Kansas City will march out righty Michael Lorenzen for the Saturday afternoon tilt. The longtime reliever is now in his fourth season as a starting pitcher and his second with the Royals. Last year he joined a winning and upstart team seeking to end a playoff drought and looked awesome with his new team down the stretch. This season started out well enough for the 33-year-old but he’s going through a rough patch right now. He has a 6.27 ERA over his last seven starts, which include a couple recent meltdowns.
Wrapping up the series on the Royals side of things, it looks like the A’s will draw left-handed rookie Noah Cameron, their first look at Kansas City’s #5 rated prospect entering the season. He’s been terrific for the Royals through his first six career starts, posting a 2.17 ERA. He was doing even better than that before his last start, where he got hit hard for the first time in the majors. The Yankees just teed off of him for six runs in his most recent start, three more than he had given up in all five previous outings appearances. Let’s hope the A’s take a look at how the Yankees approached the rookie and take some notes.