The A’s had an awesome come-from-behind victory last night, scoring two runs in the eighth to tie the game before taking a one-run lead into the ninth and holding on. That earned them win #30 on the year and pushed them past the Texas Rangers into second place,
Right-hander J.T. Ginn will be tasked with finishing off the Cubs and helping the A’s to the sweep, something the squad hasn’t accomplished since early April. The 27-year-old is in the midst of a fantastic season and is looking to keep that going against a slumping Cubs squad.
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The Athletics’ lineup for tonight’s series finale shakes out like this:
A new man at the top as rookie center fielder Henry Bolte will bat leadoff this evening. He’ll be followed by the usual duo of Shea Langeliers and Nick Kurtz, while the hit-swinging Colby Thomas, who homered last night, bats cleanup. Soderstrom brings up the rear of the top half batting fifth.
We have a couple regulars getting the day off as well in Brent Rooker and Darell Hernaiz. That means catching duties fall to Jonah Heim this evening while Alika Williams will handle shortstop. Second and third are occupied by the regulars in Jeff McNeil and Zack Gelof.
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As for the Cubs, they’ll be relying on righty Shota Imanaga to help them avoid the dreaded home sweep. Now in his third year in MLB, the 32-year-old has steadily declined since bursting onto the scene in 2024. He started off strong this year, posting a 2.32 ERA through his first nine starts. Things have quickly fallen apart for him over his last three appearances: eight earned runs, seven earned runs, and most recently five allowed to Cardinals. This recent cold streak has raised his season ERA over two full runs. He may be skidding but the Athletics’ batters have to be on their game tonight and hope this isn’t the game he figures things out. He’s only pitched once against the A’s, firing six innings of two-run ball back when the A’s were still in Oakland a couple years back.
And the Chicago starting nine:
The Cubs are slumping but there’s still plenty of power and danger in that lineup if Ginn takes them lightly. You know he won’t though and he should be ready for tonight’s gamezl
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Time to finish off the sweep. Let’s go A’s!
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