Game #65: Athletics vs. Orioles Game Thread

Looking to make it back-to-back wins

The A’s are back in the win column and it feels awesome. The birds are chirping again, the sun is shining and smiling down on all of us, and now we got more baseball to play. Let’s try to win two in a row, shall we everyone?

The team welcomes the Baltimore Orioles to Sacramento for their first trip to Sutter Health Park. The O’s enter this series riding an impressive six-game winning streak as they try to claw their way back into postseason contention after a miserable April saw them bottom out in the AL East. They still got a long way to go but a winning streak like that would give any team hope and motivation to get back into the thick of things.

Time to put a stop to that. The A’s kept their cards close to the chest yet again, not revealing Friday night’s starter until the last possible moment. Taking to the hill for the home team to kick start this weekend series will be left-hander JP Sears. The lefty experienced his worst run of action in the major leagues recently, which happened to coincide with the Athletics’ recent losing streaks. He bounced back in a big way last time out, tossing five innings of two-run ball against the Blue Jays. It wasn’t enough to earn the win but he’ll get a crack at his fifth of the season tonight against a Baltimore lineup that’s been underwhelming so far this season.

Here’s how the Athletics’ starting nine looks for the series premier on what’s looking like a warm night in Northern California:

As you can see the team is without starting catcher Shea Langeliers after he sustained a strained left oblique in yesterday’s game and was subsequently placed on the 10-day IL. Willie MacIver will get the first start with Langeliers out, and he’ll be batting eighth. The rest of the lineup looks about how you’d expect it, with Tyler Soderstrom at first base again and Max Muncy at third base for the third straight game. Left field will go to lefty JJ Bleday tonight, who is 0-for-6 with two walks and two strikeouts since returning from Triple-A a couple days ago.

For Baltimore, they’ll rely on right-hander Dean Kremer to get them their seventh straight win. His season ERA of 4.70 doesn’t strike fear into anyone but it only tells half the story. After a horrible first month of the season Kremer has turned it around, pitching to a much better 2.72 ERA during the month of May. He’ll hope to keep it up as the calendar switches to June and he makes his first appearance of the month.

Baltimore’s starting lineup for game one:

Lot’s of big names but also a lot of underwhelming seasons. There will be a couple familiar names in the Orioles’ lineup tonight as former center fielder Ramon Laureano will DH and bat third tonight for the O’s. Infielder Jorge Mateo is also an old friend, and he’ll be batting ninth and playing shortstop in place of Gunnar Henderson, who will get the night off in a boost for the Athletics. Sears needs to be careful with tonight’s right fielder because Ryan O’Hearn has been the club’s best hitter this season.

Time to start a winning streak. Let’s go A’s!