Game #49: Athletics vs. Angels Game Thread

Looking to snap this nasty losing streak

The A’s are riding a six-game losing streak but they’ll get a chance to get back in the win column tonight when they take on the Angels for the second of four in Sacramento. Huge stakes on the line tonight as the loser will fall into sole possession of last place in the AL West and the A’s do not want to be there.

Rookie Gunnar Hoglund will be asked to play stopper for the club as he makes his fourth start of the season. The 25-year-old has a solid 3.87 ERA so far in 16 ²⁄₃ frames including a gutsy performance last time out against the Dodgers. He’ll now hope to build on that against LA’s other team that has a knack for hitting home runs. If he can keep the ball in the park the rookie will be alright. And hopefully his bats will back him up enough so he can get his second win.

Those bats will line up like this tonight:

As you may have noticed Miguel Andujar is back in there for Game Two against the Angels. After not starting last night due to sore ribs he’s not only back in the lineup but also the hot corner. He’ll take the place of Gio Urshela and slide up the batting order to sixth while everyone else (Nick Kurtz, Luis Urias and JJ Bleday) moves down a spot in the batting order.

Los Angeles will March right-handed veteran Kyle Hendricks to the mound for the start tonight. His first season outside of Chicago hasn’t gone well as he’s 1-5 with an inflated 5.18 ERA in eight starts. He hasn’t been as unreliable as his bottom-line stats suggest but it’s continued a downward trend that the aging right-hander is on. Just the name of the game but Hendricks still has some juice left in the tank and the offense can’t go into this one expecting a walk in the park. In fact if they want to avoid extending their losing streak to seven games they’d better be focused every at-bat against the former Cubs ace.

The Halos lineup for tonight’s contest looks like this:

Time to snap this disgusting losing streak and march back into the playoff race. Big things start from small places. Let’s go A’s!