Kyle Bradish takes the mound for the O’s as they look to earn a sweep against baseball’s worst team.
Friday night the Orioles raced out to an early lead and did enough to hang on for a win. Saturday night the bats took a while to get going but then piled it on in extra innings. Hopefully today the O’s will finally put up dominant performance from beginning to end against baseball’s worst teams as they go for a sweep.
The good news for all of Birdland is that the O’s hand the ball to Kyle Bradish, their unquestioned #1 starter. The 26-year-old right was his usually dominant self last time out against the Mariners—throwing six innings while only allowing two runs and striking out seven.
This will Bradish’s first time facing the A’s, and therefore also his first start in Oakland Coliseum. While Bradish has been much better at home than on the road this year, he’s also been much better in day games than night games. In eight day game starts this season, the righty is holding opponents to a .209 average while posting a 2.28 ERA and striking out 10.1 batters per nine innings. Combine those numbers, Oakland’s league-worst offense and Bradish’s historical success against the AL West (he’s 4-0) and everything sets up for a great day from the Orioles’ starter.
Taking the mound for Oakland is left-hander JP Sears. The 27-year-old from South Carolina leads the A’s in strikeouts this year, but overall is still a below-league-average starting pitcher. Unlike Bradish and the A’s, Sears has faced this Orioles lineup once before this season. Back on April 10th, Sears was the losing pitcher in a 5-1 Orioles win. The lefty went five innings that night, allowing three runs—including home runs to Adley Rutschman and Ryan Mountcastle.
Sears relies heavily on a fastball-sweeper combo, and he might want to lean more heavily on that breaking ball if he’s going to find success against the O’s’ lineup. Rutschman, Austin Hays and Cedric Mullins are all slugging above .500 against fastballs this year, but those numbers drop dramatically against sweepers. Of the players in today’s starting lineup, only Jorge Mateo and Hays have positive Run Values against baseball’s “newest” breaking pitch. When it comes to RMC, Sears may want to avoid the Oriole’s first baseman altogether. Not only is he slashing .366/.431/.584 since the All-Star break, but Mountcastle continues to be a lefty masher with .339 average and 1.061 OPS against southpaws this season.
Orioles Lineup
- Adley Rutschman (S) C
- Ryan Mountcastle (R) 1B
- Gunnar Henderson (L) DH
- Austin Hays (R) LF
- Ramón Urías (R) 3B
- Cedric Mullins (L) CF
- Jordan Westburg (R) 2B
- Ryan McKenna (R) RF
- Jorge Mateo (R) SS
Starting pitcher: Kyle Bradish (7-6, 3.18 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 114 Ks)
Athletics Lineup
- Lawrence Butler (L) CF
- Zack Gelof (R) 2B
- Seth Brown (L) 1B
- Brent Rooker (R) RF
- Tony Kemp (L) LF
- Carlos Pérez (R) C
- Jordan Diaz (R) 3B
- Tyler Soderstrom (L) DH
- Nick Allen (R) SS
Starting pitcher: JP Sears (2-9, 4.27 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 123 Ks)