Back home for a bit
The team is back home after a quick trip to the Rocky Mountains and a three-game series with the Rockies. The club won their first series of the season against Colorado, taking the first two games before dropping the third. The club now gets a chance to settle in for a while as they won’t hit the road again until early next week. They’ve got a couple of series to take care of, and the first of those will be against the San Diego Padres.
San Diego has been one of the hottest teams out of the gate, They’re record sits at a strong 8-2 though in a difficult NL West that’s only good enough for third place. Their offense has been among the better lineups in the National League but they’ve done it without relying on the long ball. For the season the team as a whole only has eight home runs, with young outfielder Jackson Merrill leading the team with three. There are dangerous hitters in the Padres’ lineup like Manny Machaco and Fernando Tatis Jr. who haven’t found their power stroke yet but are a danger when they step into the batter’s box. They’ve also been without a couple of their best starters as Yu Darvish and Joe Musgrove have been injured. They’ve powered through the early adversity and enter this series on a winning note.
The A’s offense meanwhile has been much more hit-and-miss. The team is fourth in all of baseball with 16 total home runs as a team, but they’re also middle of the pack in team batting average and runs score, behind the Padres in both departments. A lot of the team’s early success can be attributed to the young guys as Lawrence Butler, Tyler Soderstrom, and Jacob Wilson have been the team’s best hitters to date. Other hitters like Shea Langeliers (3 home runs) and Brent Rooker (4) have chipped in as well while center fielder JJ Bleday, third baseman Gio Urshela, and second base rookie Max Muncy have all gotten off to difficult starts. Getting those guys going would go a long way toward making this team much more consistent and not have to rely on the long ball so much.
Monday night’s game will be a matchup of both team’s Opening Day starters as the Athletics’ Luis Severino will take on San Diego’s Michael King. Severino had a fantastic start to his season when he fired off seven scoreless frames against the Mariners, but then got hit hard in his second start against the Cubs. It was the opposite for King, who couldn’t finish three innings on Opening Day before having a strong outing his last time out. Severino sports a nifty 1.54 ERA in two career starts against the Friars while King has pitched six innings against the A’s and allowed two runs in his career.
The second game of the series will feature a duel between left-hander Jeffrey Springs versus righty Dylan Cease. Like his fellow rotation mate, Springs is set to make his third start in the Green & Gold uniform. And like Severino he was dominant in his first outing of the season before getting roughed up by the Cubs his second time out. The 32-year old will be looking to go a little deeper and provide more length, but he’ll have to do that against a Padres team that leans heavily right-handed. Cease has always had front-line stuff and always racks up the strikeouts and innings, but he also allows his fair share of runs and it’s been a similar story this season. The A’s would do well to cash in on the right-hander when he gives them an opening. Springs has never started a game against San Diego while Cease is 3-1 with a 4.28 ERA in six career starts against the A’s.
The series will wrap up on Wednesday afternoon when Osvaldo Bido takes the hill for the A’s against Padres righty Randy Vasquez. Bido entered the season with raised expectations and he’s delivered in his first two starts. In 10 innings so far this season Bido has allowed only three earned runs in the early going and he’ll be hoping to continue that in the series finale. Vasquez is entering his second full season as a big league pitcher and has looked even more impressive than Bido in the small sample of two starts. In 10 2⁄3 frames Vasquez has allowed only two runs. Both pitchers are late bloomers but they both seem to be blooming. Bido has never faced the Padres but Vasquez has faced the A’s before, firing five innings of one-run ball against them last season.
This has all the makings of a good series, one the Athletics could win. What are your expectations for the series? Discuss!