\t\t\tAthletics not surprised by success as they seek sweep of Orioles<\/p>\n
The Athletics aren\u2019t surprised about their rising levels of success as they look for a three-game sweep of the Baltimore Orioles when they close out a road trip Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe expectation level was there,\u201d Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said. \u201cFor us as a club, we\u2019ve gotten better each year. Big emphasis on defense. Our emphasis on the mound is throwing strikes and not giving up free bases, which I think we did a good job with (Saturday). Those areas of improvement have allowed us to have some consistency in the way we play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s 6-2 victory gave the Athletics a three-game winning streak for only the second time this season, maintaining their 2 1\/2-game lead atop the American League West.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe group has matured,\u201d Kotsay said. \u201cObviously, you\u2019d like to accelerate the progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Orioles have hit a rough patch with a three-game losing streak and defeats in eight of their last 10 games. Baltimore manager Craig Albernaz said the number of strikeouts for the team\u2019s batters (11) was concerning Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Athletics like how Zack Gelof has adjusted to playing at third base. He had been groomed as an outfielder, but he made a couple of notable plays in the infield Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe athleticism showed,\u201d Kotsay said. \u201d \u2026 He\u2019s settling in right now and he looks really comfortable over there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Athletics slugger Nick Kurtz carries a 33-game on-base streak into Sunday\u2019s game. That\u2019s the longest active streak in the majors, and it paid off Saturday as he scored half of the team\u2019s six runs.<\/p>\n
Right-hander Luis Severino (2-3, 4.15 ERA) gets the call on the mound for the Athletics and he\u2019ll be aiming for his fourth consecutive solid start. He won two straight outings before being tagged with the loss Tuesday in Philadelphia while giving up one run in five innings. Each of his last three starts have involved yielding one run, with the other two outings lasting at least into the seventh inning.<\/p>\n
Severino is 7-4 with a 5.38 ERA in 15 matchups (13 starts) against Baltimore. Of his 75 career victories, he owns more against the Orioles than any other team.<\/p>\n
The Athletics have received good coverage from relievers the past few games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to go through games where the bullpen doesn\u2019t have success,\u201d Kotsay said. \u201cThat\u2019s just part of the season. It\u2019s never going to go perfect. For us, our bullpen, I think, has been a strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Orioles turn to right-hander Chris Bassitt (2-2, 5.91 ERA), who had his second-shortest outing of the season (four innings) Tuesday at Miami, where he gave up four runs in a no-decision. Baltimore has won the last five games Bassitt has started.<\/p>\n
Bassitt holds a 3-1 record with a 4.20 ERA in eight career outings (seven starts) versus the Athletics.<\/p>\n
The Orioles had infielder Blaze Alexander available off the bench after he sat out Friday with a calf injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just felt something a little different in my calf,\u201d he said of the ailment, which resulted in only a one-day absence.<\/p>\n
The Orioles had infielder Jose Barrero on hand Saturday from Triple-A Norfolk in case Alexander needed to be put on the injured list, but that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n
\u2013Field Level Media<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Athletics not surprised by success as they seek sweep of Orioles The Athletics aren\u2019t surprised about their rising…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2374],"tags":[143,47,2538,5,4,125],"class_list":{"0":"post-695099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baltimore-orioles","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-baltimore-orioles","10":"tag-baltimoreorioles","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-orioles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116549431029279240","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}