AL West rivals will close out a three-game series on Sunday afternoon when the Oakland Athletics visit the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park. Houston will be going for the sweep after winning the first two games of the series including an 8-0 triumph on Saturday as a -367 favorite. Oakland is having a rough season at 41-73, while the Astros lead the division by 12 games at 74-41.
Despite the mismatch in records, Oakland has put up a good fight as the Astros only lead the season series 8-6.
Even while standing out as one of the worst teams in baseball this year, the Athletics have given first-place Houston all it can handle, at least until Saturday when Oakland got blown out. The Athletics had five hits for the game, with only two runners reaching scoring position in the loss.
Rookie Zach Logue took the loss, allowing six runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out two. Sean Murphy had a single and a walk in one of the few standout performances for the Oakland offense.
“Overall, for Zach, I think he missed some locations today that really hurt him against a good hitting team,” Oakland manager Mark Kotsay said to the Associated Press. “These guys, obviously, are professional hitters and take advantage of those mistakes when balls are over the middle. They don’t miss very many of them and they obviously didn’t today.ȁ D;
The Athletics are down a big number on the money line for the season while going 54-60 on the run line. Overs are 47-60-7 for the Athletics including an even 5-5 over their past 10 games.
It's been a miserable year at the plate for Oakland, which is putting up an average of 3.40 runs per game on a .622 OPS, both second-worst in the Majors. Oakland pitching has only been marginally better with a 4.28 collective ERA including a mark of 4.14 out of the bullpen.
Murphy is one of the better catchers in the league with a .745 OPS, 13 homers and 48 driven in. Seth Brown has provided some pop, posting a .748 OPS with 17 homers and 48 driven in.
Cole Irvin will be on the mound for the 21st time, hoping to continue an outstanding campaign as he's 6-9 with a 2.92 ERA across 123.1 innings. The 28-year-old tossed eight innings of one-run ball in a hard-luck loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Mon day, allowing five hits and no walks while striking out six.
Every position player is healthy for Oakland, but the rotation is down Paul Blackburn (finger inflammation), Brent Honeywell Jr. (stress reaction in elbow) and Daulton Jeffries (thoracic outlet syndrome). Reliever Deolis Garcia is recovering from Tommy John surgery.