The Overlooked Piece of A's Blowout Win over LA Angels

After a recent home start against the Tampa Bay Rays in which he allowed five earned across two innings of work, Ginn was looking to make his slider a little sharper, so before a bullpen session Tyler Ferguson gave him some advice on his release, and it seems to have helped a bit.

He said that his release had been creating too much "gyro" movement on his slider before, and this tweak has helped that out.

In his four starts since, Ginn has gone 21 innings, given up 24 hits, 11 ER, walked five, and struck out 25. That amounts to a 4.71 ERA, which includes two home starts against both the Detroit Tigers and Texas Rangers. Detroit is going to make it to the postseason, while the Rangers are making a late push to join that party.

The biggest trouble he's had, especially at home, is with the long ball. He's given up 16 total (12 at home) in 76 1/3 innings. His strikeout rate has been solid, sitting at 26.4% entering last night, while his walk rate has also proven to be in good shape at 7.5%. His ground ball rate has sat at 51.8% on the year, which is top-15 in baseball among pitchers with at least 70 innings. Ginn's xERA (expected ERA) is also 3.96.

His barrel rate and hard hit rate both sit in the ninth percentile, however, even while most of the rest of his metrics are at least a little above league average. Ginn certainly has the potential to be a solid starting pitcher for the A's moving into 2026, but the club will want to see a bit more out of him before he's a certain member of the rotation.

A's aiming for sweep, fourth place

Ginn's outing on Saturday night against the division-rival Angels was certainly a good start to the final month of the season.

With the win, the A's now have a chance to sweep the Angels on the road, with a win vaulting them into fourth place in the AL West. Luis Severino will get the ball for the green and gold, and he'll be opposed by left-hander Mitch Farris, who made his MLB debut against the Kansas City Royals on September 2.

Severino has been on a roll since the All Star break, holding a 4-0 record and a 2.57 ERA in five starts. After spending about three weeks on the IL in August, he returned to the rotation against the St. Louis Cardinals earlier this week and fired five shutout innings while on a pitch limit. He should be allowed to go around 70-80 pitches on Sunday.