The Dodgers’ first visit to West Sacramento puts forward the battle between one of the greatest left-handed sluggers in baseball and Shohei Ohtani. Obviously, we’re kidding, but the numbers that Nick Kurtz is currently putting up are no joke, nearly single-handedly carrying the Athletics’ offense into a fight for the AL West, whose current leader has a.500 record, easily the worst among all first-place teams. Kurtz’s efforts with the A’s are even more important with Brent Rooker currently sidelined
on the IL, not that he’s been particularly productive when on the field this season.
The American League’s leader in both runs scored (59) and runs batted in (56)—the type of achievement usually reserved for the likes of Ohtani and Aaron Judge—Kurtz is not fazed by facing a left-handed starter such as he’ll tonight in Eric Lauer. Although the production for the A’s star first baseman naturally takes a hit against lefties, he has hit six of his 19 home runs against them, good enough for an .836 OPS. Ohtani has a similar OPS against left-handed pitchers, coming in at .826, and will also face one tonight in Gage Jump, who has been magnificent since joining the A’s rotation a little over a month ago.
It is quite reasonable that the Dodgers will find an A’s team with lowered morale, given their recent inability to take advantage of a soft schedule and really cement their case to at least fight for the AL West crown. Across their last 10 games, the A’s played strictly against last-place teams and only achieved a 4-6 record against the Angels and Giants, failing to win any of the three series they were involved in. Meanwhile, the Dodgers defend their undefeated record in Lauer’s outings, having won each of the five games this veteran lefty has pitched in.
Monday’s game info
- Teams: Dodgers at Athletics
- Ballpark: Sutter Health Park, West Sacramento
- Start time: 6:40 p.m. PT
- TV: SportsNet LA
- Radio: AM 570 (English), KTNQ 1020 AM (Spanish)
