Over the past several seasons, the Athletics have had trouble defeating the Cleveland Guardians, a pattern that has continued this weekend. After losing the first two games of the series, the A’s must win today to prevent a Guardians’ sweep.
The A’s fell apart last May, suffering a long losing streak that doomed any hopes they had of competing for the playoffs. Through the first couple days of May, 2026, the vibes are fairly similar as bad pitching, iffy defense and outfielder Lawrence Butler’s momentum-changing
base running blunders have resulted in two-straight losses to begin the team’s second full month of the season. Nevertheless, the A’s remain in first-place in the American League West entering this afternoon’s series finale.
Before we get to the game info, the A’s made a minor roster move this morning, returning right-handed pitcher Luis Morales to Triple-A following his struggles to throw strikes and limit baserunners over the final two innings of yesterday’s game. The team recalled fellow right-hander Tyler Ferguson as the corresponding move. Last season, Ferguson went 4-2 with a 4.66 ERA in 56 relief appearances. He began this season with Triple-A Las Vegas, going 0-1 with a 6.17 ERA in 10 appearances. He is likely here to serve as a fresh arm for the team’s beleaguered bullpen, yet he will have a chance to take advantage of his opportunity like Joel Kuhnel and Jack Perkins have done.
Anyway, back to the contest at hand. Going for the A’s on the pitching side of things will be right-hander Aaron Civale, who has been one of the team’s most consistent starting pitchers so far this season. Civale enters his seventh start with a 2-1 record, 3.23 ERA and 24 strikeouts. In the wake of back-t0-back poor outings by starters J.T. Ginn and Jacob Lopez, the Athletics desperately need a quality start from Civale today if they want to salvage the final game of this home stand before traveling to the East Coast. Civale will have added motivation for this start, as it comes against the team that drafted him and where he spent the first five seasons of his career.
The A’s starting lineup this afternoon looks like this:
A’s manager Mark Kotsay is utilizing an interesting platoon-heavy lineup today. Austin Wynns gets the start behind the plate because Shea Langeliers and his wife welcomed their first child this morning. Hopefully Wynns will get a couple hits and maybe an RBI this afternoon as the longer the backup catcher struggles at the plate, the more complaints the team will receive about not protecting young catching prospect Daniel Susac from the Rule 5 Draft. Should Wynns get hurt, Tyler Soderstrom would replace him as he is the team’s emergency catcher for this game.
Right-handed hitters Colby Thomas and Zack Gelof join Soderstrom in the outfield. Look for left-handed hitters Carlos Cortes and/or Lawrence Butler to pinch-hit if Cleveland brings in a right-hander. Lastly, Darell Hernáiz is starting at third base once again instead of Brett Harris, who has sat on the bench every game since his promotion.
Those hitters are set to go up against Cleveland left-hander Parker Messick, the latest talented young pitcher to emerge from the Guardians’ vaunted pitching development pipeline. The 25-year-old is off to a fabulous start through his first six starts of the season. He is 3-0 with a 1.73 ERA, a 0.88 WHIP and a 38-to-10 strikeout-to-walk ratio. A few outings ago, Messick lost his no-hitter attempt with three outs to go, illustrating how dominant he has been. A’s hitters must be patient, punish mistakes and hope that Messick is slightly off his game. If the left-hander is dealing, it could be a long day for the Athletics’ offense.
Cleveland’s starting lineup this afternoon:
Civale must be careful when pitching to the top four hitters in Cleveland’s lineup, especially rookie right fielder Chase DeLauter, who has tormented the A’s throughout the series. The A’s deserve to get swept if they let light-hitting catcher Austin Hedges have another big offensive game.
Need to win this one as it would not be good to start May by getting swept at home. Let’s go A’s!
