Athletics vs. Orioles Series Preview

Looking to start a winning streak in Sacramento

The A’s are winners again! The club saw their not-so-good nine-game losing streak come to an end yesterday as they picked up their first win of June in a 14-3 drubbing of the Minnesota Twins in the series finale at Sutter Health Park. It’s now on to the next series though as the Athletics will now welcome the Baltimore Orioles to town for a fun little three-game weekend series against their AL East rivals.Time to take a peak at our upcoming opponent.

• Orioles W/L record: 25-36 (last in AL East)
• Run differential: -87
• Team OPS: .688 (22nd of 30)
• Team ERA: 5.10 (28th of 30)

The O’s have been arguably the most disappointing team in all of baseball this season. After being a popular preseason pick to not only win the AL East but also the pennant, the Orioles have stumbled hard out of the gate and now face the likely prospect of playing meaningless baseball come September. That’s not where they imagined they’d be, as general manager Mike Elias has spoken plainly about the club’s expectations heading into the year and the mediocre results that have followed. It got off to such a bad start that the Orioles made a massive change to their coaching staff, relieving manager Brandon Hyde after just six and a half weeks. They’ve played a bit better of late, including coming off a three-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners, but might have dug themselves too deep a hole to climb out of.

The Orioles’ offense has been underwhelming this year with several of Baltimore’s best players having average to below-average seasons. Catcher Adley Rutschman is sporting a nearly league-average 99 OPS+ while first baseman Ryan Mountcastle has just two home runs and a .280 OBP. Offseason pickup Tyler O’Neil has been a disaster with a .188/.280/.325 slash line and fellow outfielder Heston Kjerstad is hitting below the Mendoza line as well. Infield duo Gunnar Henderson and Jackson Holliday have been solid through the first two months of the year but haven’t reached the sky-high expectations they entered the season with.

Things haven’t been all bad on offense for the O’s. Designated hitter Ryan O’Hearn is having a career year in the heart of the Baltimore lineup and looks likely to be on his way to the All-Star Game, and longtime center fielder Cedric Mullins is having a solid season leading the team with 10 home runs. Former Athletic Ramon Laureano has also found his way to Baltimore and is having a decent year at the plate and was the team’s best hitter during the month of May.

The lineup hasn’t been as much of a weakness as the pitching has been. Baltimore’s starting rotation didn’t look all that impressive entering the year and it’s been even worse than expected. Offseason addition Tomoyuki Sugano has been a godsend for the Orioles as he’s having a terrific season in his first year in the U.S., but not much else has gone right for the starting unit. Flamethrowing right-hander Grayson Rodriguez was expected to be atop the rotation but has yet to make his season debut due to elbow troubles. Zach Eflin has regressed hard in his season season in Baltimore while the rest of their primary starting pitchers this year have ERA’s at or near 5.00, which just won’t cut it in a tough AL East full of high-powered offenses.

As of this posting only the Orioles have revealed their starters for the series. It’s fair to assume we’ll be seeing Luis Severino and JP Sears during this series but when is still to be determined. There’s also the question of if the team will give rookie Jacob Lopez one more start or if they’ll go another direction. We should be finding out the starters’ schedules soon here.

The A’s hitters will see all right-handed starters this weekend, starting with Dean Kremer Friday night. His 4.70 ERA isn’t that impressive but is good enough for the third-best mark among their starters. He’s been better than that number suggests though as after a horrible April he has a much-better 2.72 ERA during the month of May. No walk through the forrest against Kremer tonight for the A’s hitters but if they come in with a game plan they should be fine against the 29-ear-old righty.

Veteran Charlie Morton, now in his 18th season, has been the weakest link among all Baltimore starters as he’s limped to a 6.20 ERA this season. It was so bad early on he was demoted to the bullpen. He’s since returned to the starting five and has made two quality back-to-back starts so he’ll be entering Saturday night’s contest riding high. He likes pitching against the A’s: the 41-year-old has a 2.58 career ERA in eight starts against the Green & Gold.

Sunday’s finale will see the Orioles send out their top starter in Tomoyuki Sugano. Originally expected to occupy a spot in the back of the rotation after coming over to the United States this off-season from Japan, Sugano has been a revelation as he’s been Baltimore’s best starter this year. The 35-year-old has an impressive 3.04 ERA in his first action against major league hitters, putting the rotation on his back. This will be the very first time any of the Athletics hitters will see Sugano in person so the element of the unknown will be on the right-hander’s side in the final game of the weekend.