The Athletics are heading into their series against the Rays with the kind of task that leaves little room for comfort. They want a series win, but the matchup tilts heavily toward Tampa Bay, and that means the A’s have to hit a few very specific targets just to give themselves a shot.
The first one is simple: don’t bury the bullpen early. That was the problem in the series opener against the Mariners, when the Athletics burned through five of their better relievers and left themselves with only Yunior Tur, Joey Estes, Seth Johnson, and Geoff Hartlieb as the fresh options. That’s not a strong place to be, and it’s exactly the kind of setup the A’s can’t afford to repeat if they want to stay competitive against the Rays.
There is at least a little reason to believe the bullpen can hold up if it isn’t asked to do too much. Outside of the Game 2 collapse against Seattle, the relief group has been moving in the right direction.
Remove that implosion, and the bullpen would have given up just three runs, with two charged to Scott Blewett and one to Hogan Harris. That isn’t spotless work, but it’s enough to suggest the A’s can get through this series without the back end completely falling apart.
The bigger issue is the starting pitching, because this series does not exactly set up well for the Athletics on the mound. Jack Perkins, Jeffrey Springs, and Brady Basso are lined up as the starters, and that points to games that could get messy quickly.
Springs has been one of the worst pitchers in baseball. Perkins has been inadequate.
Basso, at least, gets a bit of a pass because he is technically not an actual starting pitcher.
That means the A’s offense has to do real damage. There’s no middle ground here.
If the bats are quiet, the series is likely to go sideways fast. If the lineup shows up, the Athletics at least have a chance to turn this into something more interesting.
Shea Langeliers returning to the lineup gives that offense a boost. In just four at-bats against the Mariners, he drove in four runs.
Add in Lawrence Butler getting hot, plus Henry Bolte and Jeff McNeil continuing to be tough outs, and the A’s have enough pieces to believe they should be scoring. Anything less than a five-run average across the series would be disappointing.
The final piece is length from the starters. The Athletics cannot keep handing the bullpen a mess to clean up.
In the Mariners series, they backed themselves into a corner early because of how many pitchers they had to use. Even 5.0 innings from a starter would be modest, but it would at least give the bullpen something workable to build on.
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