Field Level Media
20 Sep 2020, 15:10 GMT+10
The Oakland Athletics go for a clean sweep of their cross-bay rivals Sunday afternoon when they host the San Francisco Giants in the finale of a three-game interleague series.
After two dramatic, one-run wins at San Francisco to open the six-game season series last month, the A's have crushed their neighbors to the tune of 27-3 in the last three meetings.
Right-hander Chris Bassitt and lefty Jesus Luzardo have led off consecutive 6-0 shutouts in the first two games of this set, putting the A's in a position of recording the first 6-0 sweep of the Giants since the two began meeting in the regular season in 1997.
The longest winning streak in the rivalry, including postseason play, is eight games by the A's, bridging the 1913 and 1989 World Series and 1997 regular season.
Playing without two of their biggest bats -- injured third baseman Matt Chapman and outfielder Stephen Piscotty -- the A's (33-19) have surprised the Giants (25-26) with two guys who were playing for other teams when the clubs met in San Francisco last month.
Jake Lamb triggered a five-run seventh inning Saturday with a two-run homer, his second home run since joining Oakland on Monday. He's gotten at least one hit in all five games he's played with the A's, going 7-for-19 (.368) with two doubles, two homers and five RBIs.
Lamb hit just .116 for Arizona in 18 games before being designated for assignment last week.
"Seems like every game he comes up with a key hit," A's manager Bob Melvin observed. "Gets an opportunity off a lefty and takes advantage of it. That's how you get more opportunities. He's made quite the impression very quickly."
Tommy La Stella, meanwhile, has hit safely in 15 of 19 games since joining the A's in a trade from the Los Angeles Angels last month.
La Stella, who contributed a two-run triple to Saturday's win, has recorded two of more hits in a game seven times already for Oakland while accumulating a .310 average (21-for-68).
The Giants announced after Saturday's game that they will push ace Johnny Cueto back a day to start Monday at home against Colorado. In his place, lefty Tyler Anderson (2-3, 5.06), who was ejected after two innings in his start Thursday against Seattle, will get to deal with the new-look A's.
Anderson has faced Lamb 18 times in his career, with the ex-Diamondback going 3-for-15 (.200) with a double, homer and four RBIs. He's dueled La Stella just three times, resulting in 1-for-2 with a sacrifice fly.
Anderson has never pitched against the A's.
He is scheduled to be pitted against Oakland left-hander Mike Minor (1-5, 5.40 ERA), who is 3-2 with a 3.27 ERA in eight games (seven starts) against the Giants in his career.
Minor will encounter a team that's totaled just nine hits -- eight singles and a Brandon Crawford double -- in the first two games of the series.
"We're just going through a little stretch here where we're fouling our pitch off. We're not squaring it up. We're chasing just a little bit more than we normally do," Giants manager Gabe Kapler assessed after Saturday's loss. "That's leading to an inability to keep rallies going. We really haven't had very many in this stretch."
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