A's Facing Baltimore Orioles at the Wrong Time

The Athletics won just their second game in 22 chances on Thursday, snapping a nine-game losing streak that had an 11-game losing streak right before it, broken up by a single win. It's been tough times for the green and gold, but after a 14-3 drubbing of the Minnesota Twins in the series finale, the A's will be looking to earn another win or two this weekend.

The Baltimore Orioles have won a total of 25 games this season, holding a record of 25-36, but they are also on a six-game winning streak, having just swept both the Chicago White Sox and Seattle Mariners. The O's have been one of the worst teams in baseball this season, but this may be the wrong time to face them.

We keep saying it, but it's not who you play, but when you play them. This could be one of those instances.

A big reason for the club's turnaround has been the dominance of their pitching. Over the past seven days, Baltimore's staff holds a cumulative ERA of just 1.67, tops in baseball, with a 1.02 WHIP which ranks fifth. Over the course of the whole season, they hold a 5.10 ERA which ranks No. 28, while the Athletics rank No. 30 with a 5.79.

While the Orioles recent pitching certainly holds a clear edge, the A's have had the league's No. 5 run-scoring offense over their last seven, batting .282 with a .373 OBP as a team. It's a mystery how they still managed to go 1-6 in that span.

The Orioles offense hasn't been quite as good, sitting in a five-way tie for No. 17 with 21 runs scored in six games, compared to the A's 40 in seven. On the year, Baltimore's offense ranks No. 25 in runs scored, while the A's rank No. 12, so there is some room here for this to be a very interesting matchup, at least on paper.

The duo of Jorge Mateo and Colton Cowser in center has been doing well in limited action during this hot streak, but only one of them has been on the field at a time. The real standouts offensively have been Heston Kjerstad (150 wRC+) and Adley Rutschman (146). Dylan Carlson (143) has been hitting .333 with a .375 on-base, but has just one RBI and one run scored during the streak.

The rest of the offense has been below league average.

Much like in their series against the Twins, the A's have yet to announce their starting rotation for the series, opting to go with an opener in Tuesday and Wednesday's games in front of the bulk guys, Jacob Lopez and Jeffrey Springs. The A's didn't come away with a win in either of those games, but they each remained fairly close until the bullpen was involved in the late innings.

On Friday, the bulk guy, if not the flat-out starter should be JP Sears, who would be on turn, followed by Luis Severino on Saturday. The Athletics could go either way with an opener on those days, but there is likely to be one involved on Sunday, with Lopez due back up in the rotation, since it worked so well on Tuesday night. At least, it worked until it didn't.

If the A's had had a more reliable bullpen in that game, manager Mark Kotsay could have gone to them sooner, instead of trying to milk every last out from Lopez to preserve the relievers.

Baltimore is scheduled to use Dean Kremer (5-5, 4.70 ERA) on Friday, Charlie Morton (2-7, 6.20) for Saturday's game, and 35-year-old rookie Tomoyuki Sugano (5-3, 3.04) in the finale. Sugano has been the team's most reliable starter all season, but has been prone to the long ball, with a 14% home run/fly ball rate which has led to 12 dingers on the season in 71 innings pitched.

Sutter Health Park can be a home-run-happy place when the winds are blowing out, and the A's also have plenty of sluggers in their lineup. This could be a tough matchup for Sugano.

The keys for the A's in this series will be the top of their lineup continuing to produce, and not letting things snowball. The trio of Lawrence Butler, Jacob Wilson, and Brent Rooker went a combined 8-for-13 on Thursday. We could even add Tyler Soderstrom to the mix, given that he went 2-for-5 with a pair of home runs and six RBI, vaulting him to the top of the A's home run leaderboard with 14.

Creating opportunities will be their job, whether it's for one another, or some of the guys down the order a bit.

Thursday's game also felt a little different than 20 of the previous 21 since starter Mitch Spence was able to rebound after a tough play went against him. In the first inning, Byron Buxton reached on a fielding error from third baseman Max Muncy, who threw a sinker to first where Soderstrom was unable to pick it.

Spence got the next batter to ground into a double play.

In the second, there were two runners on base after Kody Clemens dropped a bunt right in front of the plate, just barely beating the throw to first. Spence again delivered a double play to end the threat.

These are fairly little things, but in the past three weeks, those runners have come around to score seemingly 100% of the time. The A's had also been unable to come through with a big hit. The hope is that the rough patch is now behind them, though they'll have to face an Orioles club that's playing good ball at the moment.