MidValleySports.Com

By Tim Byrnes

With a tight win on Sunday, the A’s have quietly begun to string series wins together.

The Athletics have swept Houston, and taken two of three games from Seattle, Washington, and now the Baltimore Orioles to win 4-of-5 series and go 11-5 over that span.

The A’s split two well pitched 3-2 games and they sandwiched a typical A’s explosion of offense that resulted in a 11-3 win.

These high scoring outbursts have carried the team’s past poor pitching but improved pitcher usage by manager Mark Kotsay is resulting in more wins.

Athletics Batting:

The team has cooled slightly on offense but since the series sweep against the Astros  they have climbed back among the American League Leaders in most offensive catagories.

They lead the AL in total bases, are second in hits, third in average (.254), and have 163 home runs, good for fourth in the AL.

The A’s are the only team in baseball with four players over 20 home runs in 2025.

Brent Rooker leads the team with 24, Shea Langeliers and Nick Kurtz have 23 each, and the recent power surge for Tyler Soderstrom has him up to 21.

Rooker has become the backbone of consistency at the plate for the team, with AL Top 10 output in hits, runs, doubles, home runs, and rbi’s.

He had two multi-hit games against Baltimore, added his 27+28th doubles, and his team leading 24th home run.

First base Nick Kurtz has cooled since his amazing 6-for-6, 4 home run game in Houston…or has he?

In the 13 games since that record breaking night, Kurtz has only one extra base hit (xbh), a double, and three rbi’s.

Kurtz had eight rbi’s in that one game!

A closer look into the games since, Kurtz has hit a quiet .325, and had he been promoted earlier in the season and qualified for the batting average title, his current .305 average would be fifth in baseball behind teammate Jacob Wilson’s .312.

While he had two multi-hit games versus the Orioles, he did strike out five times in the series.

His one weakness has been the inside breaking ball and his “swing and miss” on that pitch is back.

He had an issue with it early on this season and made adjustments so he should be fine.

Athletics Pitching:

Starter Luis Severino has had several ups and downs this season and after winning four consecutive starts he has been placed on the 15-day IL (left oblique strain).

With that loss, the A’s are rolling out four rookies in their starting rotation and it was an all-rookie series versus the Orioles.

JT Ginn (2-4) struck out nine and only allowed three hits in five innings but two were home runs and he took the 3-2 loss.

Jack Perkins has had two starts in his career and both began with early issues allowing runs. Relying too much on his fastball against the Orioles resulted in giving up three runs in the first inning but after using his breaking ball late in counts he became unhittable.

Perkins (1-2) went six innings and took the win in the 11-3 rout.

Recently promoted RHP Luis Morales started the series finale in a pitch-by-commitee approach and there was mixed results.

While pitching a hitless 2 2/3 innings, Morales was pulled for control issues.

He walked the bases loaded in the first, and didn’t have even half his pitches be called strikes. He finished with five walks.

Five relievers contributed from there and rookie Elvis Alvarado (1-0) added his own hitless 1 2/3 innings to get the series win and his first career win.

It was a great moment after the final pitch as Alvarado shook catcher Willie MacIver’s hand, hugged him, and with a huge grin lifted MacIver in celebration.

The bullpen pitched another fine series in relief, allowing only 2 runs and finishing the series with a stellar 1.46 era.

Relief pitcher Tyler Ferguson was just promoted back to the majors and was put to work, immediately.

He made two appearances and gave up a lone hit in 2 2/3 innings with three strikeouts. He will likely be a workhorse and see a lot of innings until Severino returns.

Upcoming Series:

The Athletics (53-67) return to West Sacramento, from the short 4-2 roadtrip, to start a six game homestand against the 57-62 Tampa Bay Rays.

The A’s played the Rays in Florida earlier this season and hold a 2-1 series lead on the year.

The Rays send RHP Ryan Pepoit (7-9, 3.77) to the mound, coming off a recent 7-3 win against the LA Angels.

The A’s send the only veteran left in the rotation, LHP Jeffrey Springs (10-7, 3.89) and he is pitching better than anyone else on the team right now.

Springs has won four of his last five decisions and in his last start held the Washington Nationals to one hit over six innings in the eventual 2-1 loss.

GameTime:

August 11, 2025 705pm

Sutter Health Park

West Sacramento, Ca.