A's Aim to Finish Strong at Home in June

The Athletics are facing the Cleveland Guardians this weekend, winning the first game of the series on Friday, 5-1. This will be the A's final homestand of the month, before heading on the road to Detroit, New York, and Tampa Bay.

It would be a big boost of confidence to head into Motor City with a couple more home wins under their belts. After their last trip to Kansas City, anything can happen. Their dominance in their sweep of the Royals triggered a players-only meeting to be held after the A's handed them a 4-0 loss.

The A's may continue to surprise some people and set some teams back on their heels if they're able to play good, clean baseball with quality starts from their rotation and can execute with runners in scoring position.

The A's will be looking to take advantage of their standout rookies, Jacob Wilson and Nick Kurtz at the helm of their offense. They both can put the barrel on the ball and make things happen against the Guardians, or any other team for that matter.

The A's have been showing better production offensively as of late, and have impressed in spurts with the glove too. When the pressure was on in the late innings on Thursday night, Max Muncy showed off his skills to make two double plays that were a huge momentum shifts.

In the 10th inning, his double play was clutch to field a hard-hit ground ball, quickly step on third and throw to Kurtz at first to end the inning. Following the game, manager Mark Kotsay remarked that he was impressed that Muncy had the awareness to actually keep the ball down on the throw, intentionally bouncing it to first, where Kurtz was able to make the scoop.

Athletics on SI spoke with Muncy pre-game on Friday about his two huge plays and he reiterated how big that was going into the bottom of the 10th to not let the Houston Astros score in the top half of the inning. He had the mindset of immediately making the play at third, and thought he had a good shot at it.

Muncy's attitude and reaction to the play was full of emotion, and he showed his teammates how he was willing to do whatever it takes to win. It's plays like those that make all the difference in being able to have the confidence to win the game.

The A's are 6-6 at home in June, and want to finish strong before the next month and the upcoming All-Star break. One outcome they could achieve would be to sweep Cleveland this weekend, which would give them a winning month at Sutter Health Park. Given the team's 15-25 record at home this season, that would be a huge step in the right direction.

Of course, they could also win two-of-three against the Guardians and go .500 at home this month, which is a victory of sorts as well. Sweeps are just more fun though.