Series Preview: Will the A’s finish with a better record than the Giants?

**Series overview**

*Who:*San Francisco Giants (18-26) at The Athletics (22-21) *Where:* Sutter Health Field | West Sacramento, California *When:*Friday at 6:40pm PT, Saturday at 6:40pm PT, Sunday at 1:05pm PT *National broadcasts:*None, but all 3 listed as the MLB.tv Free Game of the Day **Projected starters** Friday: TBD vs. Aaron Civale (RHP 4-1, 2.59 ERA) Saturday: Trevor McDonald (RHP 1-0, 2.92 ERA) vs. Luis Severino (RHP 2-4, 4.07 ERA) Sunday: Adrian Houser (RHP 1-4, 5.79 ERA) vs. Jeffrey Springs (LHP 3-3, 4.22 ERA)

**Players to watch**

**Athletics**

***Nick Kurtz:*** The 2025 AL Rookie of the Year posted a 1.o02 OPS with 36 home runs in his age-22 season (489 PA). He’s up to a .905 OPS in 193 PA through the first month and a half of the season. 6 of his 7 home runs have come over the past 23 games. ***Shea Langeliers:*** He currently leads the sport in hits with 55 hits along with 12 home runs. He’s a bit off of Cal Raleigh’s 60-home run pace from last season (he had 14 through his team’s first 43 games), but it’s worth keeping an eye on. ***Joel Kuhnel & Hogan Harris:*** You’d think trading Mason Miller would leave the backend of the Athletics’ pen compeltely exposed. That hasn’t *totally* been the case, and they’ve at least populated it with some quirky characters. First up is soft-tossing journeyman righty Joel Kuhnel, who is doing it with a sinker that simply gets the job done. He has just 6 strikeouts in 15 innings. He got a nice writeup in MLB.com last month. Meanwhile, lefty reliever Hogan Harris is approaching journeyman status (29, despite being drafted by the A’s) and has walked 17 in 23 IP — but has also struck out 21.

**Giants**

***Bryce Eldridge:*** We can’t consider 104 games spread out across a few years an indication of a home field, but this is where he was getting comfortable before the Giants called him up to sit on the bench. Let’s see if he gets a start or really any playing time in what was his minor league home for a time. ***Trevor McDonald:*** Unlike Eldridge, McDonald will be returning to a place where he did *not* impress, sporting a 5.40 ERA the past two seasons. As a starter on the mound for the San Francisco Giants, he has been a tough starting pitcher. Will he hold firm to that characterization or lose himself in the West Sacramento of it all? ***Daniel Susac:*** He’s set to be activated for this series and we’ll see if the organization’s favorite catcher can pickup where he left off.

**Tony Vitello watch**

Like some of the recent River Cats now with the Giants, I imagine there’s a degree of familiarity for Vitello in that Sutter Health Field should feel a lot more like a college stadium than a major league one. But maybe I’m wrong about that!

**Prediction time**

The Giants will not get swept.