News
Shea Langeliers hit a solo homer to help the A’s to a win over the Brewers on Saturday.
Langeliers gave the A’s some cushion with a solo homer in the ninth to extend the lead to 3-1. They didn’t need another run with Mason Miller taking the hill, but a nice thought, anyway. Langeliers has five homers, 11 RBI and a .797 OPS over 21 games.
Ryan Weathers allowed two hits and one run with one walk and five strikeouts over five innings in a 3-1 win over the Cubs on Wednesday.
This was just about as good a debut as anyone could have expected out of Weathers against this talented Cubs’ lineup. Their only run was a solo home run by Seiya Suzuki and Weathers had practically no stressful moments. He showed the same increased velocity – average of 97 mph, topping out at 99 mph – that generated so much buzz during spring training plus his solid sweeper and changeup. He will try to build on this start next time out, which is scheduled to come against these same Cubs.
Jesus Tinoco struck out one in a clean inning of work to earn the save against the Cubs on Wednesday.
While the Marlins began the season a bit erratic with their late inning bullpen deployment, Tinoco has now received their last three save chances and seems to be their preferred ninth inning option. He did blow one of those three chances though – just yesterday against these same Cubs – and things can change fast, but all signs are pointing to him being the guy in Miami and this moment.
Kyle Stowers went 3-for-4 with two solo home runs and a triple on Wednesday against the Cubs.
Stowers continues to hammer baseballs. His two homers gave him three over his last two games and nine already this season. All four of his balls in play were hit at least 98.9 mph and his power has proven to be legit. There’s a decent chance his near 30% strikeout rate catches up with eventually, but ride the hot hand while you can.
Josh Lowe (oblique) went 2-for-4 with a solo homer on Wednesday in a minor league rehab game for Triple-A Durham.
Seiya Suzuki went 1-for-4 with a solo home run on Wednesday against the Marlins.
Suzuki’s home run was the extent of Chicago’s offense here as they were stymied by Ryan Weathers and the Marlins’ bullpen. That homer was his 11th of the season and brought his RBI total up to 35 in what’s been a great early season surge for the slugger.
Jameson Taillon allowed four hits and three runs with zero walks and seven strikeouts over six innings in a loss to the Marlins on Wednesday.
Taillon was victimized by the home run ball for the second consecutive start. He’s now allowed seven in his past two outings, but they didn’t hurt him so badly here since each was just a solo shot. Kyle Stowers accounted for two of them, first on a cutter that sat in the middle of the plate and then on a fastball up-and-in that he muscled over the right field fence. Between those, Agustín Ramírez tattooed a hanging sweeper. Nevertheless, Taillon’s ability to keep runners off base allowed him to wind up with a quality start. He’s scheduled to face these same Marlins next time out.