Tonight, the Athletics begin their penultimate homestand of the season with the first of three games against the Toronto Blue Jays. While the A’s, 30 games under .500, are focused on finishing the season strong, the stakes remain high for the Blue Jays, who enter the series a half-game out of the third American League wild-card slot.
Left-hander Jacob Lopez will make the start for the A’s. The 28-year-old enters his 24th appearance and 21st start of the season with a 6-4 record, a 4.71 ERA and 103
strikeouts over 105 innings.
Lopez has quietly put together a stellar second half of the season. Over his last seven starts, the southpaw went 1-0 with a 2.45 ERA, 50 strikeouts and a 1.12 WHIP. After several games in which he pitched well but received no-decisions, Lopez finally earned a win in his last outing against the Texas Rangers, allowing two runs on six hits over six innings.
The lanky left-hander went 1-1 in two starts against the Blue Jays last year. This evening, he will look to keep the good times going in his first appearance against Toronto this season. To do so, Lopez must continue limiting free passes and preventing too many mistake pitches from leaking over the middle of the plate.
Here’s how the Athletics will line up for the series opener:
The A’s lineup is basically unchanged from yesterday’s shutout defeat. The only alteration comes behind the plate, with Jonah Heim catching Lopez and batting ninth.
The team needs designated hitter Max Muncy, right fielder Lawrence Butler and third baseman Zack Gelof to carry over their success from this past weekend’s series into this weeklong homestand.
Additionally, Henry Bolte gets another start in center field, with the slumping Carlos Cortes in left field. Why did the team call up Denzel Clarke only to leave him on the bench nearly every game? Maybe the offensively challenged but defensively elite outfielder would have been better off getting everyday playing time at Triple-A to figure out how to stop hitting groundballs in almost every at-bat.
The Green and Gold will face Blue Jays right-hander Dylan Cease, who has more than lived up to the contract Toronto gave him in free agency this past offseason. Cease, one of the frontrunners for the American League Cy Young Award, enters his 27th start of the season with a 10-5 record, a 2.25 ERA, a 1.04 WHIP and 221 strikeouts over 156 1/3 innings. Not only does Cease have the third-most strikeouts among all MLB pitchers, but he is holding opposing batters to a .176 batting average.
Tonight will be Cease’s second start against the A’s this season. In March, he held the Athletics to one run on three hits while recording 12 strikeouts over 5 1/3 innings. The A’s have to hope Cease pitches as badly as he did in his first start at this ballpark last year, when he allowed nine runs on nine hits over four innings as a member of the San Diego Padres.
And Toronto’s starting nine:
A big reason why the reigning American League champion is in a fight to make the playoffs is Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s disappointing season, which includes only eight home runs. In contrast, third baseman Kazuma Okamoto has put together a stellar rookie season. Those two, along with longtime A’s killer George Springer and catcher Alejandro Kirk, have the ability to do damage should A’s pitchers make mistakes.
Time to kick this homestand off with a win and play spoiler once again. Let’s go, A’s!
Follow the Game:
Watch:
Athletics – NBCSCA
Listen:
Athletics – Talk 650 KSTE, KVMX 92.1/105.5, A’s Cast
