Luis Medina, A’s look to complete sweep of Giants

After a well-played 2-1 win Saturday, the Oakland Athletics will go for a rare two-game sweep when they wrap up the Bay Bridge Series Sunday against the San Francisco Giants. Seth Brown’s RBI single in the eighth inning was the difference and backed a good pitching performance by Paul Blackburn. Luis Medina will get the start for Oakland in the finale while the Giants will go with right-hander Alex Cobb.

Medina will be looking to continue a good run of starts that began in July, when he takes the mound Sunday. His season numbers are still ugly, but Medina appears to be headed in the right direction and is making strides in lowering his walk-rate which currently sits at 10.8%. That is the lowest mark of his professional career, with the exception of a brief stop at High A in 2019 when he was still in the Yankees system.

Medina comes into Sunday’s start having allowed three runs combined over his last three starts. Perhaps more impressive, he has 18 strikeouts and just four walks over his last 16 innings.

The Giants come into Sunday’s game leading the NL Wild Card race. Cobb allowed four hits and three runs, including three homers, over six innings in his last start against the Diamondbacks. He faced the A’s back on July 25 in San Francisco and blanked them for six innings while striking out nine.

Esteury Ruiz returned from the injured list Saturday and picked up a single and his league-leading 44th stolen base of the season. Jordan Diaz started at third base and hit his eighth home run of the season. Rookies Zack Gelof and Tyler Soderstom were a combined 0-for-5 with three strikeouts.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Sunday, August 6, 1:07 p.m. PDT

Location: Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, CA

TV: NBCSCA

Streaming: MLB.tv

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