New series
Coming off a mid-week series win over the Texas Rangers the Athletics continue their home stand against the Chicago White Sox in a rematch from last week.
If you’ll recall the A’s absolutely dominated the South Siders over three games en route to the team’s first sweep of the season. The Athletics out scored Chicago 23 to 4 and were only behind for two innings in the entire series. The White Sox have had a rough go all season and that includes after the sweep last week. They dropped three of four to the Red Sox before losing a three-game series against the division rival Twins. If the Athletics can at least take two of three from Chicago then they’ll find themselves at .500 as the end of April approaches, and a sweep would give the A’s a winning record before starting next week’s road trip.
The first game will see a matchup between A’s starter Luis Severino versus Chicago rookie Sean Burke. The right-handers will duel to open the series on Friday night in what is looking like a cool and cloudy night. Severino has had an up-and-down first month with the Athletics after signing a massive contract this offseason. An impressive Opening Night performance was followed by two straight duds. He’s bounced back with a pair of quality starts, including arguably his best outing of the year last time out when he tossed eight innings of one-run ball against the Brewers. His ERA now stands at 3.31 entering tonight and another start like his last outing and he can lower than ERA below three.
Unlike Severino, Burke did pitch during the sweep last week. The A’s hit the rookie hard in that appearance, tagging him for five earned runs just 3 1⁄3 frames. Burke bounced back in his most recent outing but his season ERA still stands an an ugly 6.23, the worst mark among White Sox starters this season. The A’s would love to get the series started on the right foot and that means putting up more damage against Chicago’s young starter.
Taking the hill for the A’s on Saturday afternoon in Sacramento will be lefty Jeffrey Springs. The veteran will be trying to right the ship after a rough start in his last outing where he allowed six runs (four earned) without even managing to finish three innings. His 5.64 ERA is the highest in the Athletics starting rotation as of today, not exactly what the A’s were hoping for when they acquired him this offseason. He hasn’t gotten truly lit up in any one start so far but he’s struggled mightily since an impressive start to begin his A’s career in the second game of the season. If you remove that outing his season ERA would balloon all the way to a disappointing 7.71 in four April starts. Springs has had lots of trouble early in games as he has a 12.60 ERA in the first inning and a better but still bad 10.80 mark in the second. He’ll be looking to get off to a good start tomorrow and hopefully provide more innings to help the bullpen out.
He’ll be opposed by sophomore starter Jonathan Cannon, who will be looking to replicate what he did last week against the A’s. While the righty didn’t finish five full frames he didn’t allow a run in his 4 1⁄3 innings of work. The A’s would ultimately win that contest but Cannon did enough to give his teammates a chance to steal a game against the A’s. He’s currently fourth on the team with a 4.81 ERA through five starts for Chicago.
Wrapping up the series and home stand, Sunday afternoon will feature Osvaldo Bido looking to bounce back after a horrendous start in his last outing. The right-hander’s ERA went from 2.61 all the way to 4.85 after he allowed eight earned runs to the Rangers earlier in the week. He’d been the team’s most consistent starter before that dreadful appearance so there’s no reason to push the panic button with the 29-year old. Chicago’s lineup isn’t the strongest and Sunday represents an excellent opportunity for a bounce back outing.
Chicago will counter in the series finale with righty Davis Martin. The 28-year old was never considered a top prospect in the Chicago pipeline but has been a starting option for them the past couple of years. Martin started the year in Chicago’s rotation and has looked solid overall, pitching in five games with a 3.95 ERA over 27 1⁄3 innings. Like Bido Martin had one horrible start that has thrown his bottom-line stats off. Martin pitched the final game of the sweep last week, pitching into the sixth inning while allowing four runs to the A’s. That was enough to saddle him with the loss but he bounced back with five shutout innings against the Twins a few days ago. The team is getting lucky to avoid Chicago’s best starter Shane Smith but the Athletics can’t take anything for granted against Martin.
So how will this series turn out? Can the A’s sweep Chicago out of Sacramento and finish the home stand 5-1? Or do the White Sox get some revenge for last week and take a game or two against the Athletics? Only one way to find out and that’s to tune in!