Red-Hot A’s Face Defining AL West Test Against Rangers
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After a rough start to the 2026 season, the A's had the tough task of heading into New York to play six games against the Yankees and then the Mets. After blowing the first game in the Bronx in the eighth inning, that's how many expected the rest of the series to go. However, the A's quickly turned things around, winning the next two games before heading to Flushing.
The series win against the Yankees was a good momentum shift for the team, but they would need to stay hot against the cold-hitting Mets. The A's would win the first two games of the series, and then face New York's ace, Freddie Peralta in the series finale.
The A's would only score one run in the whole game on Nick Kurtz's first homer of the season, but the pitching staff shut out the Mets to grab the 1-0 victory. The A's shut out the Mets twice in this series, and the Yankees in their series finale, so the pitching staff has been on fire of late.
The team that was off to a historically slow 1-5 start is now 8-7, and tied for first place in the American League West. The team right alongside them is the Rangers at 8-7. Texas is also the team heading to Sacramento for a four-game series this week at Sutter Health Park.
Time for the A's to make a statement
The A's are traveling across the country and for this home series, while the Rangers are just heading up from Southern California. A's ace Luis Severino will take the mound for the A's on Monday evening. Severino is coming off five innings pitched against the Yankees, in which he gave up two earned runs in the first inning then settled in nicely, finishing with four hits, five walks, and seven strikeouts.
Although giving up just two runs while striking out seven looks pretty good, he'll need to limit the free passes if the A's want to win their sixth game in a row. The Rangers' offense has been fairly mediocre this season, so giving them free passes could add up quickly.
On the other side, Rangers' ace Nathan Eovaldi will make the start. He's coming off his best start of the season against Seattle, where he pitched six innings, gave up six hits, two earned, walked two, and struck out seven. However, his ERA on the season sits at a brutal 7.98, because he gave up five and six earned runs in his first two starts against Philadelphia and Baltimore.
On Tuesday, it will be a matchup of hot southpaws, as Jeffrey Springs (1.47 ERA) takes on MacKenzie Gore (2.76 ERA). Only five American League pitchers have more strikeouts than Gore at this point in the season, as he sits at 25. Expect a pitchers' duel in this one.—even at the hitter-friendly Sutter Health Park.
On Wednesday, J.T. Ginn will make his second start of the season, coming off an impressive outing against his former organization, the Mets. He pitched four innings of scoreless baseball on a limited pitch count, allowing a walk and a hit, while punching out four hitters. The Vandy product, Kumar Rocker, will take the bump for Texas after a pair of solid starts against the Reds and Dodgers.
To wrap things up on Thursday, Jacob Lopez will take on Jack Leiter for a 12:05 p.m. (PT) start to wrap things up. Because it's a division rival series, it'll be very nice if the club can at least take two of the four games, to keep themselves atop the AL West before taking on the Chicago White Sox over the weekend.
Given that the A's are playing their best ball of the season so far, a series win should be the goal for the club.
I grew up playing baseball, and also enjoyed watching and writing about my favorite team, the A’s. Being a diehard A’s fan from New Jersey is certainly not common, but I love the team and all of the current and former players so much. I currently attend school at Penn State Scranton where I get the opportunity to play college baseball.
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