The A’s just keep winning! In New York for their fourth straight game the A’s took the first game of the weekend series against the Mets, winning 4-0 thanks to some late-game insurance that they ended up not really needing. Still love the foot on the gas pedal late though!
Ginn dominates in first start
We had a new starting pitcher outside of the season-opening rotation on the mound for our Athletics for the first time this season. Right-hander JT Ginn was tabbed tonight for his first start of the 2026
season after beginning the year as the team’s long man in the bullpen, taking the spot of Luis Morales.
Ginn hadn’t really pitched deep into any games this year. The longest he’d gone was in his first outing of the season when he took over after a short Morales start in the first series of the season. He’d reached 45 pitches in that outing and that was the goal the coaching staff probably had in mind for their young righty tonight.
Ginn began his night hot, striking out Francisco Lindor and Bo Bichette to start tonight’s contest. He issued a walk in the second and allowed a single in the fourth but outside of those two batters Ginn sat down every Mets hitter he faced tonight. It was a dominant outing against a Mets lineup missing their biggest bat in Juan Soto, but it was still a great sight to see the 26-year-old absolutely control the team that drafted then traded him to the A’s way back in 2022.
- J.T. Ginn: 4 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 68 pitches
It felt like a bit of a gamble to have him face the top of the order for a second time but Mark Kotsay’s roll of the dice worked out in his favor in this one. It had to have felt good for Ginn to show up his former organization in this one.
Bats mostly silent…. Mostly
Meanwhile the Mets had right-hander Clay Holmes on the mound for them tonight. The A’s were having a bit better luck early on against the former reliever but they weren’t able to cash in on those early chances.
That is, until the third inning. Backup outfielder Carlos Cortes, who looks likely to get more playing time with Brent Rooker out due to injury, singled to kick off the top of the third inning. A strikeout and walk put him in scoring position with one down but a force out seemingly killed the rally before it got started. Well Shea Langeliers had something else to say about that, collecting his first hit of the night to bring around the runner at second for the game’s first run of the game:
Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to have him hitting at the top of the lineup. Worked out in this situation, that’s for sure. Now if only we can get Nick Kurtz going…
Then things got quite. Real quiet. Neither team was able to get much of any type of rally going at all through the middle frames. The biggest moment from these innings came in the bottom of the sixth. Right-hander Jack Perkins, only called up today, came on in relief of Mark Leiter Jr. and was immediately greeted with singles off the bats of Lindor and Bichette with no one out. Tough spot to be in, but the defense came up huge behind him. A groundball to Nick Kurtz was fielded by last year’s ROTY and the first baseman made the decision to go for the runner at third. It was risky but ended up being the smart decision as he nabbed the runner at the hot corner, and that was immediately followed by a groundball double play that squashed the Mets’ rally in its place:
That might have been the biggest moment of the game. If the Mets get on the board then things could have snowballed and tonight’s recap would sound a lot different.
Perkins ended up pitching the next inning as well, and then got the first out of the eighth before making way for Scott Barlow, who did his job by getting the next two out to set up a save situation for the Athletics. Perkins ended up pitching 2 1/3 innings and allowing just three hits while collecting three punchouts. A successful first big league appearance of the season, and Barlow looks like he’s slowly getting himself on track as well.
Insurance time!
Clinging to a 1-0 lead the A’s were desperate for some cushion. Anything, even one run, would help take some pressure off the man in the ninth to be perfect. Well the A’s gave him that and more. It all started with Jacob Wilson collecting his third hit of the night (he’d finish 3-for-4 on the evening), and he was able to advance to second thanks to an error in left field by rookie outfielder Carson Benge. That was then followed by a Jeff McNeil single against his former team that brought home that much-needed insurance run:
The club wasn’t done there, either. Third baseman Max Muncy followed McNeil with a double than put two more runners in scoring position, and after a groundout from Cortes the A’s got the biggest hit of the night, a two-run single off the bat of center fielder Denzel Clarke:
So good to see Clarke find some success with the bat. We all know about the amazing glove he has on the grass in center field but it’s going to be his bat that keeps in him the lineup on a regular basis. Clarke spoke after the game with the guys about that ninth inning:
That rally all but sealed tonight’s outcome. Righty Elvis Alvarado came on for the ninth and pitched a clean inning, ending the game by getting old friend Marcus Semien to fly out to Soderstrom in left. Another win for the good guys!
Things broke the A’s way tonight. Ginn was fantastic and likely earned himself another start next week (which lines up to be against the Texas Rangers at home). The bats were quiet for most of the game but came through when it mattered most. Jeff McNeil had two hits and a huge RBI against his former squad. The bullpen did its job and then some with five shutout frames. The pitching staff has now gone 26 straight innings without allowing a run, and the team is coming off back-to-back wins against both New York teams. The Athletics are now 6-7 and are starting to play like the team A’s fans expected.
The series continues tomorrow afternoon with Game 2 of the series. It’s going to be left-hander Jacob Lopez on the bump for the good guys in what’ll be his third start of the season. His first two outings weren’t horrible, but he’s yet to give the team much length after only going 4 1/3 and 4 innings in both starts this year. The club could be taking things easy with him considering his injury that ended his campaign last season but it’d still be nice to get some more length out of him for the bullpen’s sake. The Mets meanwhile will send righty Kodai Senga out there tomorrow afternoon. He’s off to a quick start this year after missing essentially all of last season due to injury. In two career starts against the A’s he’s only allowed four runs spanning 11 2/3 frames. Not an easy test for the bats but four wins in a row should be plenty of motivation. But great win all around tonight!
