The last time the Athletics won a series in Sacramento was April 28-30 against the Kansas City Royals. The last time the A's won a home series was June 12-14 in Las Vegas against the Colorado Rockies.
Needless to say, it's been a long time since the A's have won a home series, no matter where home has been. They have lost their last six home series and are 0-12-1 in their last 13 in Sacramento. They have also gone just 4-19 over their last 23 home games.
The A's home ERA now sits at 6.52, worst in MLB. The worst home ERA the club has ever had was 5.90 in 1936, so there will be some work to do to avoid that record by season's end.
But back to the task at hand on Sunday. Following the 8-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Friday night, the A's will at least have a shot to win the series in the finale. The green and gold will be starting left-hander Jacob Lopez (5-4, 5.38 ERA), who has been superb since rejoining the rotation after the All-Star break.
The lefty holds a 2.36 ERA with a 1.09 WHIP in five starts, which includes holding the red-hot Red Sox to just one run across 5 ⅓ innings in July, and the Tampa Bay Rays — the best team in the American League — to two earned runs over seven innings on Monday.
Lopez's batting average against has also dropped to .196 in the second half, while his strikeout rate has jumped to 29.1% (was 16.4% in the first half) and his walk rate has fallen to 9.1%. His mentality has just been different on the mound these past five starts, and it has been leading to the same type of success he showed in the second half of the 2025 season.
Opposing Lopez will be Rangers left-hander Cody Bradford (0-1, 2.38), who will be making his third start of the season after undergoing left elbow surgery on June 25, 2025. The last time he faced the A's was in 2024, where he pitched against the A's twice at home and once on the road. That road start was the second-to-last game at the Oakland Coliseum.
The A's goals right now are to win as many games as possible the rest of the way to get back some of that winning culture in their clubhouse, but also to play spoiler within their own division.
Sunday they'll have the chance to do both.
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