Elephant Rumblings: A’s Welcome Tigers To Town

We made it everyone. Happy Friday!

The club wrapped up its series with the Boston Red Sox last night with another close loss. It was a competitive series and if some things had gone a bit differently they could have been the ones to take three of four instead of being the ones losing three of four. The club now sits at 45-64 and are getting dangerously close to the Angels at the bottom of the division. If there should be one goal the rest of the year it should be to finish in fourth place.

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Now that Boston’s left town the club will bring in an AL Central foe as the Detroit Tigers arrive in Sacramento for a three-game weekend series, the final one before the trade deadline. While Detroit started the year poorly they fought back and got into the playoff race briefly, thanks in part to sweeping our A’s right before the All-Star break. Alas, a tough week has dropped them to seven games under .500 and quashed any notion they had they could leapfrog half a dozen teams for a playoff spot, so they’ll enter Monday’s deadline as sellers.

With that development comes the addition of one of the best arms on the market in Tarik Skubal. The reigning back-to-back AL Cy Young winner is now officially on the table in trade talks with many in the business convinced that the left-hander is all but certain to be traded. He wasn’t lined up to pitch against the A’s either way during this series in Sacramento but monitoring the situation all weekend should cause some off-field drama in the other dugout. Skubal isn’t the only one likely to be traded but the entire baseball world is holding their breath to see where he ends up.

As for our weekend series, we have our starting pitching matchups all set. Tonight’s series opener features lefty Jeffrey Springs making possibly his last appearance for the A’s before Monday’s trade deadline. He’s had a tough season and his most recent start was cut short thanks to a tight hip but that seemed to be a precaution and he’s healthy enough for tonight’s start. Would a big outing make it more likely he finds himself on the move, or nothing will affect that equation now? Springs will be opposed by former #1 overall pick Casey Mize, who is himself having a fantastic year and will come into this one with a 2.70 ERA. Like Skubal he could find himself on the move over the next couple of days.

Saturday we’ll see a rematch from a couple weeks ago as rookie right-hander Jack Perkins goes up against the veteran Framber Valdez. Perkins made a “bulk” outing against the Tigers and it delivered mixed results. He’s gotten two traditional starts since then and looked much better so the hope is he can continue this mini roll he’s on right now. The A’s meanwhile will be looking for some revenge against Valdez after he quieted A’s bats for three hits and one run in a loss.

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And then we wrap up the series on Sunday afternoon with Gage Jump getting the ball for the Athletics while the Tigers will send their own young arm to the bump in Keider Montero. Jump has had a solid start to his career overall but July has not been kind to the lefty. He seemingly righted the ship his last time out when he fired six shutout innings against the Red Sox on Monday and the A’s would gladly take more of the same. Montero meanwhile got a bit roughed up in his last start, allowing nine hits and four runs against the Orioles. This should be a good contest and a glimpse into the future for both clubs.

First pitch is at 6:40. Have a great weekend A’s fans.

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Any chance he’ll get a quick cup of coffee with the big league team in September?