Time to take on another NL foe
It’s an off-day which means it’s a great time for the players to flush the last series and mentally prepare to start a brand new one. After dropping two of three to the San Diego Padres, the Athletics would love to win this next series coming up. That’ll be another three-game set at home against another NL rival, only this time it’ll be the New York Mets coming to town.
New York has gotten off to an 8-4 start this season and is coming off a 3-game sweep of the Blue Jays and winning two of three against the Marlins so they’re on a bit of a roll as they arrive at Sutter Health Park. They’re statistically in second place in what should be a hotly-contested NL East as they’ve got one more win and one more loss than the Phillies. The Mets have gotten to where they are thanks to a pitching staff that has more than pulled their weight and overperformed. Over the first 12 games the Mets’ pitching staff has posted an eye-popping 2.10 ERA, which leads baseball, and are second in the National League in strikeouts, all without former A’s starters Frankie Montas and Sean Manaea, who are both on the Mets’ IL and won’t pitch in this series.
Meanwhile the Mets’ lineup, which added megastar Juan Soto this offseason to go with Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso, has struggled outside of their super stars. If the A’s are careful with the main lineup threats then they shouldn’t have too difficult a time against the rest of the New York lineup, which is top-heavy and has been slumping hard to begin the season. They’ve scored just 45 runs in 12 games, which puts them in the bottom third of the NL in scoring and on par with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Alonso leads the team with a mere three homers.
The Athletics offense meanwhile continues to be mainly powered by the long ball. The A’s are currently third in all of baseball in home runs with 19. They’re more than just home runs however as they’re also sixth in the American League in OBP and have the fifth-fewest strikeouts to match. The team has benefitted from the breakout of first baseman Tyler Soderstrom, who has been the team’s best hitter and has six home runs already, as well as the consistently-consistent Jacob Wilson, who extended his league-leading hitting streak to 13 games yesterday and will look to continue it against the Mets. He won’t have a chance to break the A’s season-opening hit streak record (17) during this series but he’ll get close if he collects a hit in three more straight games.
A couple of the players that have gotten off to slow starts finally started showing signs of life at the plate against the Padres. Center fielder JJ Bleday and third baseman Gio Urshela both collected three hits during the San Diego series and if they can get going for the club then this lineup becomes much more deeper. They’ll be going up against some tough pitching during this series but they’ve both shown they can handle it and are ready to start turning their seasons around.
The first game on Friday night will see the A’s send out left-hander JP Sears to take on Mets starter Griffin Canning. Both Sears and Canning are set to make their third starts of the season. Sears has looked impressive through his first two outings, pitching into the seventh inning in both starts. The 29-year old, entering his third full season with the team, will look to continue that streak tomorrow against a Mets team that has star power up and down the lineup. Tomorrow is not going to be easy for the lefty.
Canning, who the A’s are familiar with after he spent the past five seasons pitching with the rival Angels, has gotten off to a terrific start with his new team. HIs first outing saw him pitch into the sixth while allowing just one run against the Astros. His second start was less impressive but he still fired off four innings of one-run ball against the Blue Jays. Canning knows plenty of the hitters in the A’s lineup and is on a roll early on so the team can’t lose focus. Canning is 3-5 all-time against the A’s in 11 starts with a 4.84 ERA
For the A’s, the starting pitching schedule after Sears is currently up in the air. There are rumors and rumblings that right-handed prospect JT Ginn will be getting the call for Saturday’s game, but that has yet to be confirmed. The other options for that game would be for righty Mitch Spence to take the ball and make that start or, more unlikely, the team could go with a bullpen day and use multiple relievers and long men to put together nine innings of work. We should know more by the end of the day on how the team plans to tackle the Saturday assignment.
Whatever road they decide to go down, Mets left-hander David Peterson awaits. The 29-year old has been around for a while now, pitching in his sixth season in Queens with the only team he’s ever known. The former 1st-round pick has shown plenty of flashes, with last season representing his best yet as he tossed 121 innings with a sterling 2.90 ERA in 21 starts for the Mets. He’s gotten off to a similarly strong start this season as he’s allowed just three runs in 10 2⁄3 frames so far this year.
While Saturday’s starter is up in the air, the A’s know who will be getting the call to wrap up the series on Sunday. Righty Luis Severino will be getting the ball for his fourth start of the season, hopefully in a position to finish off a sweep. The 31-year old had a fantastic start to his Athletics career when he threw six shutout innings against the Mariners up in Seattle on Opening Day. The hope was that was just a taste of things to come but so far that outing is looking like the outlier. In the two starts since then Severino has gotten lit up for 10 runs in just 13 innings of work and in both outings the opponent was all over Sevy early in the game. He needs to get out to a good start in Sunday’s finale or he could be looking at his third loss with the Athletics.
New York will finish the series off with Japanese right-hander Kodai Senga. The 32-year old only made one appearance during the regular season last year, a July 26th outing that was sandwiched between two long stints on the injured list. Even after missing all that time, the Mets still decided to turn to Senga to begin their NL Division Series against the Phillies. He wasn’t long for that game and he ultimately struggled in three postseason appearances. On the plus side for him he had a clean bill of health heading into the offseason. It looks like that’s done the trick for him as he’s looked like his usual dominant self again, allowing just two runs in 10 innings so far this season. If he really is back to his 2023 form then the Athletics will have quite the challenge for them in the series finale.