Back home. The team is starting to feel themselves again after they got back on track with a big series sweep of the Royals over the weekend. Now they\u2019ll take on the division-leading Houston Astros for the first of four games to kick off a nice weeklong homestand and hopefully secure their 30th win of the year tonight.<\/p>\n
The Athletics will welcome a familiar face to the broadcast team tonight as former fan favorite Tony Kemp joins the broadcast for his first time calling an A\u2019s game:<\/p>\n
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Kemp played four years with the Athletics and was beloved for his heart and hustle during some tough losing seasons. We\u2019ll be seeing more of him for the rest of the season, with appearances in the booth coming soon enough.<\/p>\n
The starting pitcher for the home team tonight was only revealed a couple of hours ago. Right-hander Mitch Spence was always in line for the start and the A\u2019s made that official this afternoon, preparing to send the second-year pitcher to the mound for what will be his third start this season. He\u2019s looked terrific in his lone two starts since returning to the starting five, tossing five innings in both starts and allowing just one run on six total hits. He\u2019ll aim to keep that up tonight against an Astros team h<\/p>\n
The A\u2019s lineup tonight shakes out like this<\/p>\n
A couple regulars will get the day off tonight as center field will be manned by JJ Bleday, giving Denzel Clarke a day off. Expect to see Clarke enter the game in the final innings as a defensive replacement. And Luis Urias will ride the bench tonight, making way for Max Schuemann to take over the keystone. The catcher tonight will be rookie Willie MacIver.<\/p>\n
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The Astros\u2019 original scheduled starter for tonight\u2019s series opener was supposed to be veteran righty Lance McCullers Jr., but he was a late scratch this morning when the team announced that he had suffered a foot sprain and would instead land on the IL. It\u2019s yet another tough injury development for McCullers after he missed all of 2024 and 2023 seasons, and most of 2022 due to elbow problems. He finally returned to a major league mound over a month ago and he\u2019d made seven starts before this latest development.<\/p>\n
Taking McCullers\u2019 place as the starting pitcher tonight will be right-hander Ryan Gusto. The 26-year-old has bounced between starting and relieving this season, making 15 appearances while also getting nine starts under his belt. He\u2019s been nails out of the bullpen with a sub-1 ERA in his relief outings, but a bloated 5.45 ERA in his nine starts. Overall he\u2019s sporting a 4.56 ERA on the season.<\/p>\n
The Houston lineup for tonight\u2019s series opener looks like this:<\/p>\n
We\u2019re 0-2 so far against these guys this season. Time to snag our first win and start embracing spoiler mode. Let\u2019s go A\u2019s!<\/p>\n
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