The Athletics nabbed their first win of the 2026 season yesterday in a 7-3 win over the Rangers. They scored more runs in the first few frames alone than they had in the previous four games combined, so maybe the bats are finally starting to wake up. Who’s ready for the second win now?
The A’s have left-hander Jeffrey Springs set to make his spring debut this afternoon, looking to get the 33-year-old ramped up for his second season in the Green & Gold. Springs bounced back from a horrid April to be
one of the Athletics’ more consistent starters for the majority of the season and the club will be hoping he can skip that part and just get right into his groove from the get-go. That starts today.
The starting lineup this afternoon for our Athletics looks like this:
Shortstop Jacob Wilson is batting leadoff this afternoon, a spot he’ll hopefully see plenty of this coming season. There’s plenty of speculation that manager Mark Kotsay will make Nick Kurtz the leadoff man in 2026 but Wilson seems like much more of your prototypical leadoff guy.
We’ll also continue to see the third base battle play out this afternoon as Max Muncy and Darell Hernaiz are both in the lineup this afternoon, with Muncy at the hot corner and Hernaiz at second base. If position alignment is an indication of where the A’s are leaning then Muncy is looking like the option at third base to open the season. On the other hand, the team needs a backup at shortstop so Hernaiz might be playing himself into a job one way or another thanks to his versatility.
The Royals’ lineup today shakes out like this:
The Royals will be going with a left-hander in Bailey Falter to begin today’s game, though of course we can only expect to see him for so long before KC begins dipping into their other options.
Time for the second win of this spring. Let’s go A’s!
