Weekend series against an AL Central opponent
The A’s are riding high after last night’s fun walk-off win. It was the second of the series against the Astros, a series they split two wins apiece. Now the Athletics will welcome the Cleveland Guardians to town for their first trip to Sacramento ever. The Athletics’ season seems to have slipped away after a dreadful May, but there is still plenty left to play for as the midpoint of the season quickly approaches, and right behind it the All-Star Break and soon after the Trade Deadline. The Guardians on the other hand are right in the thick of things, a half-game back of the third and final Wild Card spot with five teams within two games behind them. Time to play spoiler.
- Guardians W/L record: 37-36 (2nd in AL Central)
- Run differential: -20
- Team OPS: .673 (25th of 30)
- Team ERA: 3.91 (18th of 30)
Cleveland has hovered around the .500 mark for most of the season. In a division with the emerging Detroit Tigers, that’s only good enough to put them 9.5 games back of the division lead, essentially cutting off one way to the postseason as we approach the halfway point of the season. That’s a disappointing outcome for a team that was on the other end of that dynamic, winning the AL Central by 6.5 games over the Tigers last year. They enter this series coming off a sweep of the San Francisco Giants but before that lost four straight series, including a sweep to the Mariners just last weekend.
The Guardians have relied on the strength of their pitching this season, as they tend to do every year. Third-year righty Gavin Williams has been the club’s best pitcher with a team-leading 3.58 ERA in 15 starts (luckily the A’s will miss him this weekend). Righty Tanner Bibee has been almost just as good behind him as well, though not quite living up to high expectations he entered the year with. Third-year pitchers Luis L. Ortiz and Logan Allen have done admirably in the backend of the rotation, but the Guardians have had to turn to different arms in the fifth spot due to injuries. Rookie Slade Cessoni has taken hold of that spot for now after six solid starts. They back up their solid starting rotation with an above-average bullpen, which ranks 12th in terms of ERA and is led by stud closer Emmanuel Clase.
As always, third baseman Jose Ramirez is having a typically strong season as he continues to make a stronger and stronger case for Cooperstown. Left fielder Steven Kwan is second on the team in hits and first baseman Carlos Santana has eight home runs and a .339 on-base percentage but the Guardians lineup isn’t deep and it gets light after those bats. For instance, Kyle Manzardo is second on the team with 11 long balls but is also hitting just .212 as the primary DH. They rank 20th in home runs as a team and just 25th in batting average.
Tonight’s series opening matchup will pit left-hander Jeffrey Springs versus righty Tanner Bibee. Springs made his return to starting in his last time out after making a couple “bulk” appearances behind an opener. He looked good, firing off six innings of two-run ball. Outside of one bad appearance he’s been among the team’s more reliable pitchers since the calendar turned to May, and the team will be hoping he can get the squad off to a good start this weekend as he vies for his sixth win in an A’s uniform.
Bibee meanwhile has a solid 3.79 ERA on the season through 14 starts. In the midst of his third season in the bigs, Bibee isn’t living up to the high expectations he set after his first two seasons in the majors were highly successful, but he’s still been a solid starter and staff leader for a team in the middle of a playoff race. The 26-year-old has been finding his groove recently too, which doesn’t bode well for A’s hitters tonight.
Saturday evening’s contest will see a matchup of right-handers Luis L. Ortiz for the Guardians and Mitch Spence for the A’s. Ortiz, in his first year in Cleveland after an offseason trade from Pittsburgh, is in his first full season as a full-time starting pitcher. The results have yielded a mixed bag as he’s got a middling 4.64 ERA in 14 starts. He hasn’t been as bad as that bottom line number suggests however. In nine of his appearances he’s allowed three runs or less, but on the flip side he’s also allowed five runs or more three times, including six runs allowed in his most recent outing. Which pitcher will show up to face Spence?
The Athletics’ own starter will be hoping to further cement his spot in the starting rotation. Since turning to a starting role Spence has been all the A’s could have ever hoped for, going five innings in each start and allowing just two runs total. It hasn’t been flashy as he has just 12 strikeouts, but he hasn’t been giving anything away for free, issuing just two walks. The A’s would take that every single time out if Spence could provide that. Let’s see if he can make it four straight quality starts on Saturday night.
And wrapping up the series for the Guardians will be second-year right-hander Shane Cecconi. The 33rd overall pick in the 2020 Draft, Cecconi made his big league debut in the middle of May and outside of one bad start he’s lived up to his draft pedigree, going at least five innings and allowing no more than three runs in any of the starts he’s made so far in his young career. He’s also been racking up the strikeouts at an impressive rate, collecting 34 K’s in just 30 1⁄3 frames compared to just 11 walks. Overall through six starts he’s posted a 4.15 ERA as he takes on the Athletics for the very first time.
The Athletics will counter Cecconi with left-hander JP Sears, who is desperate to get his season back on track. After being the team’s best and most consistent starter for the first month and a half he’s been the team’s weakest link in the rotation. Through his first eight starts the third-year lefty posted a 2.80 ERA, which ranked among the AL’s best at the time. Since then he’s posted a dismal 9.29 ERA in seven starts. A lot of the damage came in three meltdown outings but he hasn’t looked like the pitcher that came out of the gates tossing like a pitcher on a mission. There’s no indication he’s battling any type of injury and we’ll all just have to hope the 29-year-old can get back on track against a Guardians team he’s 0-2 with a 5.50 ERA against in his career.