The Oakland Athletics have managed just one run over their past two games and they’ll be hoping to end the drought in the series finale against the Dodgers tonight.
The Athletics have gone cold offensively over their last two games, running into some good outings from opposing pitchers Shohei Ohtani and Hyun-Jin Ryu.
Prior to their two-game cold stretch, the A’s had scored 25 runs over their last four games. That stretch, however, has come to a screeching halt.
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Just five hits were recorded by A’s hitters on Tuesday night, two of them via Khris Davis. They’ve faced some good pitching, we know that, but what the first 12 games have shown us is that this offense is going to be hit and miss all season long; something we thought would be the case coming into April.
Daniel Mengden will be on the mound for Oakland, looking to grab his first win of the season. He’s currently 0-2 with a 6.55 ERA in his two starts.
Mengden hasn’t been able to work deep into games so far this season, but he’ll be looking to go further this time around to give the bullpen some much-needed rest.
The Dodgers will send another lefty to the mound tonight, this time it’ll be Alex Wood. Wood is 0-1 with a 1.93 ERA (two starts) this season, striking out 10 in his 14.0 total innings of work.
Wood is a knuckle ball pitcher, and a pretty good one at that, so the A’s are going to have their work cut out for them.
Sizzling Semien
Marcus Semien enters tonight’s game on a career-high eight-game hitting streak and will look to keep that going against Wood and the Dodgers.
Semien has reached base in all 12 games this season, and has recorded a hit in all but one game.
His success has gone somewhat unnoticed during the Athletics’ struggles offensively, but it’s certainly good to see him stringing together some solid outings to begin the season.
Another off day?
Yes, the Athletics will have another off day tomorrow. It’s rare for a team to have two off days in the same week, but the A’s need to take that and use it wisely.
The bullpen has worked overtime to begin the season so an extra day of rest for them will be incredibly beneficial.
Next: Marcus Semien extends hitting streak in loss to Dodgers
The Athletics, as we know, went down to a four-man starting rotation because of the two off days, and it allowed them to bring in some much-needed depth in the outfield; especially considering two outfielders have gone down with injury.
RHP Trevor Cahill is widely expected to fill the fifth spot in the rotation when another starter is needed again after tomorrow’s off day.