Happy Friday A\u2019s Fans! Hope everyone\u2019s week has been going well so far.<\/p>\n
The Athletics<\/a> have had more success this week, once again showcasing better performances on the road than at West Sacramento\u2019s Sutter Health Park. They got the weeklong road trip started with a series win over the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. They were in prime opportunity to get the sweep, but suffered a bullpen collapse, resulting in a walk-off loss to end the series against the Cubs.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The majority of the A\u2019s roster has performed better on the road. The pitching staff has performed particularly well, posting a noticeably lower ERA away from home. Take left-hander\u00a0Gage Jump, for example. He surrendered four runs on nine hits in his first MLB start at home before tossing seven innings of one-run ball against the\u00a0Chicago Cubs\u00a0on the road. However, the team\u2019s bullpen remains shaky regardless of where the A\u2019s play.<\/p>\n The A\u2019s look to continue their stellar road form during this weekend\u2019s three-game series against the division-rival\u00a0Houston Astros<\/a>. The last time these two teams met in Houston,\u00a0Nick Kurtz<\/a> launched four home runs in a historic performance that helped secure American League Rookie of the Year\u00a0honors.<\/p>\n Right-hander Jack Perkins<\/a> will make his first start of the season in the series opener. In 17 relief appearances, the 26-year-old is 2-2 with a 5.46 ERA and three saves. He has struggled recently and is now set to join the rotation following a series of injuries and ineffective performances among the club\u2019s other starting pitchers. His performance will determine whether this is a one-time spot start or the beginning of a permanent role in the rotation.<\/p>\n On Saturday, A\u2019s right-handed pitching prospect Kade Morris is lined up to make his first MLB start. He faces a stiff test against a lineup that includes Yordan Alvarez<\/a> and Jose Altuve<\/a>. Will Morris sink or swim?<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Sunday, the A\u2019s wrap up the road trip with left-hander Gage Jump on the mound, looking to follow up his quality start at Wrigley with another solid outing. From the other dugout, A\u2019s hitters will face Astros right-handers Peter Lambert<\/a>, Tatsuya Imai<\/a> and Mike Burrows<\/a>.<\/p>\n Can the A\u2019s make it two straight series wins? What are your expectations for this upcoming series in Houston?<\/p>\n A\u2019s Coverage:MLB News and Interest:Best of X:<\/p>\n With voting now underway for the 2026 MLB All-Star Game, Athletics fans should get behind\u00a0catcher Shea Langeliers as well as first baseman Kurtz, both of whom are emerging as legitimate All-Star contenders.<\/p>\n After playing three games against the Houston Astros this weekend, the A\u2019s will spend next week in Las Vegas, hosting the Milwaukee Brewers<\/a> and Colorado Rockies<\/a> at the stadium of the A\u2019s Triple-A affiliate, the\u00a0Las Vegas Aviators.<\/p>\n Athletics\u2019 20-year-old left-handed pitching prospect,\u00a0Wei-En Lin, has been dominant at Double-A. It will be fascinating to see how he handles the jump to Triple-A when he inevitably gets promoted, hopefully sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Happy Friday A\u2019s Fans! Hope everyone\u2019s week has been going well so far. The Athletics have had more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":718050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,4245,52,161,54,5163,26058,817,89860,363,59,4,459,63,10195,3442,4658,1949,544,5824,738,2264],"class_list":["post-718049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago-cubs","tag-baseball","tag-chicago","tag-chicago-cubs","tag-chicagocubs","tag-colorado-rockies","tag-cubs","tag-houston-astros","tag-illinois","tag-jack-perkins","tag-jose-altuve","tag-matt-marton-imagn","tag-mike-burrows","tag-milwaukee-brewers","tag-mlb","tag-nick-kurtz","tag-oakland-athletics","tag-peter-lambert","tag-shea-langeliers","tag-tatsuya-imai","tag-the-athletics","tag-tyler-soderstrom","tag-usa","tag-wrigley-field","tag-yordan-alvarez"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116698031314729401","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718049","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=718049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/718049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/718050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=718049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=718049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=718049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}