In a proverbial David versus Goliath matchup, the Houston Astros will head west to take on the Oakland Athletics. Houston tops the AL West—and all Major-League Baseball—in wins while the A’s are in the cellar of the division. While the Astros are sure to offer the A’s a challenge, Oakland is coming off a series win over the New York Yankees who rank second in the AL in wins behind Houston.
This series will be contested from Monday, June 19, 2017 through Thursday, June 22, 2017 at O.Co Coliseum in Oakland.
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Pitching Matchups
The Astros rotation is in shambles right now that that’s a big part of why this team has been faltering. They have four veteran starters on the DL right now and will continue piecing together the rotation through this series.
The series will open with Brad Peacock on the mound. The 29-year old has been up-and-down from Triple-A numerous times in the last four years, but has yet to establish himself as a consistent Major Leaguer. That aside, he’s currently the best pitcher in the Houston rotation by the numbers.
Peacock gets the ball on Monday with a 3-1 record, sporting a 3.00 ERA and 1.205 WHIP. His FIP is 2.34 indicating he’s pitched even better than the numbers suggest. Despite all of that, this will be only his sixth start since moving from the pen. The Astros have lost his last two starts and he’s failed to go five innings in either outing. That aside, he’s been a good strikeout pitcher since joining the rotation. He struck out 10 in 4.2 innings in his last start and has a 13.4 strikeout per nine inning ratio, well above his career norm.
The A’s will counter Peacock with Daniel Gossett, a fill-in starter of their own.
Gossett is in the rotation for Andrew Triggs who dominated early, but had been struggling lately. This is only Gossett’s second big league start. He lasted only 3.1 innings in his debut, giving up seven runs to the Marlins. Houston’s rotation promises to be even harder to navigate, but some experience under his belt—albeit one start—could help settle the nerves.
As the series progresses, Oakland will see a few more experienced arms, at least in comparison.
Sonny Gray, Sean Manaea and Jesse Hahn are lined up for the next three games of the series.
Gray has a 5.87 ERA in his last four starts and is winless in that span. He’s been a much better pitcher at home than on the road. That’ll will benefit him, but he’s looking more like last year’s version of the right-hander than Cy Young contender from a couple seasons ago. He’s 2-2 with a 4.44 ERA and 1.348 WHIP overall. That said, his FIP is 3.33 as he’s improved his strikeout to walk ratio greatly since last year and has exhibited better overall control.
As for Manaea, the southpaw is throwing the ball better than any other Athletic right now. He’s 6-3 with a 4.01 ERA and 1.114 WHIP. Those are strong numbers and comparable to what he sported in his rookie season, but he’s been better since coming off the disabled list.
He did give up five runs in six innings against the Yankees his last time out, but before that had five straight appearances giving up two runs or fewer and has an ERA of 3.27.
Hahn is also pitching better since returning from the DL. In three starts back, he’s 2-0 with a 2.81 ERA. He faced the Astros back in April and delivered a quality start—barely—in the loss.
Houston hasn’t formally announced the rotation past Peacock. With so many injuries, they have a lot of moving parts. Francis Martes, Dallas Keuchel and Mike Fiers are expected to get the starts in that order.
Martes is the Astros’ top prospect. The 21-year old is 1-0 in his first two big league games, allowing five runs on seven hits and four walks in his first 8.1 innings of action. He’s got great stuff which is evident by his nine strikeouts, but is still a bit erratic in the zone. He could use a bit more polishing at Triple-A, but for now is needed with the big club.
Kuechel will be coming off the DL to make the start. He’s been dominant when healthy, but this is his second stint on the 10-day DL. He’s still second to Lance McCullers on the team in innings and is 9-0 with a 1.67 ERA and 0.872 WHIP when on the bump. He is, however, better at home than on the road.
As for Thursday, Fiers is a serviceable back end starter. He matches up against a hot pitcher, but should at least give the stout Astros offense a chance, by keeping the team in the game.
Power Potential
Oakland isn’t known as a band box. In fact, with so much foul territory down the lines, it’s often considered quite the pitchers’ paradise. Nevertheless, this series could still produce a lot of fireworks off the bat.
Headed into Sunday, Houston was second in baseball in home runs, just two behind the Yankees. They’re also amongst the game’s most prolific offenses. The A’s haven’t scored nearly as many runs, plating 80 fewer, but are only nine bombs off the pace of the Astros.
So far in the month of June, the Astros offense has started to slip with the A’s outscoring their opponent in this four-game set by a couple runs in the month.
Even with the slow down, George Springer’s power has been on full display. He’s hit five in the month and nine over the last 30-days. In the month of June, he’s one of three players with an OPS north of 1.000, not including Derek Fisher who made quite the impression in his first game up.
Along with Springer, Brian McCann has shown good power in June with four bombs and Jose Altuve is the other player with an OPS north of 1.000 for the month at 1.056. He’s got three home runs and six doubles, but also sports a .431 OBP for the month.
For Oakland, Ryon Healy has hit eight home runs in June. His bat is absolutely on fire. He’s now hit 17 homers this season, tying him with both Yonder Alonso and Khris Davis for the team lead. Both sluggers haven’t been as hot in the month of June. Still, both can crank the ball out when necessary.
Fielding Matters
There are a lot of places to go to highlight the difference in these two teams. The rotation—even with Kuechel slated to make a start—has both teams even and the power is strong on both sides, too.
The rest of the offense highly favors Houston. Their lineup is much deeper and they’re better at getting on base and hitting of average. The bullpens are another area of differentiation. While those all provide plenty of fodder, fielding cannot be ignored.
Houston has been an average fielding team by the numbers. With Josh Reddick out of right-field, the defense takes a bit of a hit, but Oakland has committed more errors as a team in 2017 than any other squad. They’ve committed 64 miscues in 68 games.
Ryon Healy is a huge culprit even though he gets most at-bats at DH. Still, if he’s in the field, there is a huge hole.
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