Important Series For A's, Angels

The A's will be sending out a returning J.T. Ginn for Monday's series opener, and he'll be going against arguably the scariest pitcher in the Angel rotation, José Soriano. The righty has a 3.46 ERA this season and has been both completely dominant for stretches, or somewhat mediocre.

This month he holds a 1.50 ERA across three starts spanning 18 innings. That said, his WHIP in May is 1.44, so there could be opportunities for the A's to capitalize on.

On Tuesday, it'll be Gunnar Hoglund for the A's going against veteran Kyle Hendricks and his 5.18 ERA (5.39 FIP). Hoglund has been largely effective for the A's, going at least five innings in his three career big league starts, and allowing two or fewer runs in two of those three.

Wednesday will see the A's best pitcher this season, JP Sears, and his 3.31 ERA, taking on Jack Kochanowicz, who also has a high WHIP at 1.47. His strikeout rate sits at just 13.7%, while his walk rate is also in the double digits at 10.4%. On the one hand, he has a high ground ball rate (52%), but on the other, his stuff and his location are below league average across the board.

For the finale, the A's will be sending out their ace, Luis Severino, who has struggled at home this season, pitching to a 6.75 ERA. The Angels are expected to counter with 35-year-old Tyler Anderson, who has a 3.04 ERA, but a 4.85 WHIP. Sutter Health Park could be a place he has a hard time with that big of a gap between actual and expected stats--if the wind in blowing out.

Offensive battle closer that you'd think

Over the course of the full season, the A's offense as a unit ranks No. 10 overall in wRC+ (107), while the Angels group is well down the list at No. 24 (88). Yet, when you zoom in a little bit, the A's offense is still better this month, but not by as wide of a margin, ranking No. 14 in May with a 103 wRC+, while the Angels are fairly close behind them at No. 19 (98).

Taylor Ward is batting just .210 with a .265 OBP, but he also ranks tied for second in home runs this month with six. JJ Bleday would be the A's comparable player, batting .180 with a .255 OBP in May, but he's hit four dingers.

In nine games, 24-year-old Matthew Lugo is batting .360 with a .385 OBP and three home runs. He sits towards the bottom of the order and has been a terrific catalyst for the Angel offense since being called up just over a week ago.

First baseman Nolan Schanuel is getting on base at nearly a .400 clip (.391) and has more walks (9) than strikeouts (6) this month, while leadoff man Zach Neto has been slugging, smacking four home runs while batting .281 with a .347 OBP.

In an odd twist, former Chicago White Sox Tim Anderson and Yoán Moncada are both on this club, with the former in a rotation at second base, and the latter more or less the team's starting third baseman.

Right now, the A's offense is largely being led by rookie Jacob Wilson, who's batting .337 with a .369 OBP overall, which includes hitting .359 with a .423 OBP in May. Lawrence Butler has started to warm up of late, collecting two big RBI-producing hits over the past few days, but he's been struggling overall.

The A's offense is still pretty good, but for Angels fans, it's going to be different guys than they're used to doing the producing.

Trap series for the A's

About a week ago, you would have looked at this series for the Athletics and seen a few wins coming up on the schedule. Now, with the team having lost five in a row and the Angels coming off a sweep of the Dodgers, the series could go either way.

The A's are the better team over the course of a full 162-game season, but sometimes it's not who you play, it's when you play them. Teams were lining up to face the Minnesota Twins just a couple of weeks ago, but they are suddenly the hottest team in baseball, running off 13 straight before dropping Sunday's game to the Brewers.

The same can be said for both the A's and Angels. The NorCal club is struggling, while the Angels are riding high. Narratives can change in an instant, but this is going to be a big series for each club. The A's need desperately to get back in the win column, while the Angels want to show that they're going to be competitive this season.

First pitch for Game 1 is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. (PT) on Monday at Sutter Health Park.