Luis Medina looks to build off of good outing as A’s look for split with Astros

Coming off of a solid performance Saturday night, the Oakland Athletics will try to salvage a series split Sunday when they wrap up a four-game set against the Houston Astros. After dropping the first two games of the series, the A’s won Saturday night 4-1 behind a good performance by Paul Blackburn and home runs from Zack Gelof and Seth Brown. Luis Medina will get the start for the A’s in the finale while Houston will go with right-hander Hunter Brown.

It might be a small consolation, but Oakland enter’s play Sunday with just one more loss than the Kansas City Royals for the worst record in the majors. A win Sunday could potentially pull the A’s out of the cellar.

Medina is coming off one of his best performances of the season where he allowed just three hits and a walk while throwing 5 2/3 scoreless innings against the Red Sox. After struggling with his control for a two-game stretch, Medina has walked just two batters over his last 11 2/3 innings. He faced Houston back on May 28 and was hit hard allowing three homers and five runs in 5 1/3 innings.

It has been a struggle of late for Brown who comes in having allowed 12 runs in 12 1/3 innings in July. Brown allowed six hits, four runs and struck out seven over 5 1/3 innings in his last start against the Rockies. He’s faced the A’s twice this season and has allowed three earned runs combined over 13 innings.

Zack Gelof had two hits Saturday, including his first major league home run. Gelof has a 156 wRC+ over his first 33 plate appearances. Jace Peterson finished with two hits while Seth Brown hit his 10th home run of the season.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Sunday, July 23, 1:07 p.m. PDT

Location: Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California

TV; NBCSCA

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: A’s Cast, Bloomberg 960 AM / 103.7 HD2, KIQI 1010