Last night, the Athletics fell to 19-39 at Sutter Health Park after dropping the series-opener against the Minnesota Twins, 9-6. Starter Jeffrey Springs struggled once again, and the offense’s last-ditch rally came a few runs short. Tonight presents an opportunity for the last-place A’s to earn their 20th home win and force a rubber match tomorrow.
Rookie left-hander Gage Jump will be on the bump this evening for the home team. The 23-year-old enters his 17th start of the season with a 5-8 record,
a 4.83 ERA, a 1.51 WHIP and 88 strikeouts over 82 innings. Jump has endured some turbulence lately, going 2-4 with a 6.75 ERA and a 1.83 WHIP over his past seven starts. In his most recent outing against the Kansas City Royals, Jump took the loss after allowing five runs on eight hits over four innings.
This evening, the A’s would greatly appreciate a quality start from Jump in his first career appearance against the Twins. Through his first several MLB starts, Jump has alternated between stellar outings that have the team envisioning a future with him near the top of the rotation and poor performances that highlight the youngster’s areas for growth as he adjusts to major league hitters. It would be beneficial for Jump to finish the season strong, although the team must be mindful of his workload to avoid increasing the southpaw’s injury risk.
Here’s the Athletics’ lineup tonight:
From the jump, this lineup sets the A’s up well defensively. Tommy White is a better fit at first base, as last night’s bunt debacle showed he is a bit stretched at the other infield corner.
The top four hitters in the A’s starting nine all recorded multi-hit games yesterday. Right fielder Lawrence Butler and center fielder Henry Bolte are both scorching hot, with Butler batting .417 and Bolte hitting .357 over their past seven games.
It was nice to see Zack Gelof snap out of his slump with two hits in the series opener. Speaking of slumps, struggling catcher Jonah Heim is on the bench, with Brian Serven behind the plate for this game. Birthday boy Max Muncy is also on the bench, with shortstop Alika Williams making his first start of the series.
As for the visiting Twins, they have right-hander Taj Bradley going for them today. The 25-year-old is in the midst of a solid season in his first year with this franchise. Bradley enters his 26th start of the season with a 9-5 record, a 3.90 ERA, a 1.28 WHIP and 158 strikeouts over 140 2/3 innings. He received a no-decision in his last start against the Atlanta Braves after allowing one run on two hits over five innings.
The Athletics have limited history against Taj Bradley, as he did not pitch when these teams squared off in Minnesota around a month ago. The right-hander is 0-1 with an ERA of 4.35 and 13 strikeouts in two starts against the A’s, both of which came when he with the Tampa Bay Rays. Will the Twins starter add another quality start to his resurgent campaign, or will the A’s offense get to him?
Here’s how the Twins look tonight:
Minnesota’s offense will look to take advantage of these hitter-friendly conditions for a second straight night following Monday’s offensive explosion. It is noteworthy that Josh Bell is not playing after his strong performance yesterday.
Jump will need to be especially careful when facing superstar center fielder Byron Buxton and one of Minnesota’s top prospects, shortstop Kaelen Culpepper, as they combined for seven hits last night. Will Jump shut down the Twins’ bats, or will it be another early exit for an A’s starting pitcher?
We can do this. A win tonight plus some help from the Guardians down south in Los Angeles and we can climb out of the cellar of the league. Let’s go A’s!
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