A’s look to secure series win in Toronto against the Blue Jays

The Oakland Athletics will try again to secure a series win when they take on the Toronto Blue Jays Sunday in the rubber match of a three-game series. The A’s snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 5-4 win Friday night in the series opener. They fell behind early Saturday in a 7-3 loss to even the series. Luis Medina is scheduled to start for Oakland Sunday while the Blue Jays will go with lefty Yusei Kikuchi.

Medina has worked behind an opener in three of his last five starts, so there is a chance that the A’s go that route again for Sunday’s game. He allowed four hits, one run and struck out four over 4 1/3 innings in his last start against Cleveland. Medina’s command has often been his biggest question mark, but he has issued just two walks combined over his last two outings (9 innings).

It has been an up and down season for Kikuchi who will bring a 3.97 ERA and a 5.41 FIP into Sunday’s start. Kikuchi had everything working in his last outing where he allowed just two hits and struck out six over six scoreless innings against the Marlins. He has allowed two runs or less in five-straight starts and has a 2.61 ERA through four starts in June.

Mark Kotsay dropped Esteury Ruiz to the ninth spot in the order for Saturday’s game and he went hitless with two strikeouts in four plate appearances. Tony Kemp moved into the leadoff spot and went 1-for-4 and was also hit by a pitch. Kemp has hit safely in eight of his last nine games. Seth Brown hit his fifth home run of the season in the second inning of Saturday’s game, but is hitting just .191/.257/.324 with a 65 wRC+ in June.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Sunday, June 25, 10:37 a.m. PDT

Location: Rogers Centre, Toronto, ON

TV: NBCSCA

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: A’s Cast, Bloomberg 960 AM / 103.7 HD2