Athletics at San Francisco Giants

Jeffrey Springs (3-7, 5.55 ERA) gets the ball for Oakland, and you don't need advanced metrics to see what's wrong. His last outing on June 19 against the Angels lasted 3.2 innings — 6 earned runs, 4 walks, 86 pitches, then a quick exit. The Athletics won that game 12-11 in extra innings, which says a lot about Oakland's offense and nothing good about Springs. On the other side, Landen Roupp (5-7, 4.15 ERA) was much sharper in his last start, going 6 innings and allowing just 2 runs on 7 hits with 7 strikeouts against Miami on June 19. The paper advantage is clear, though Roupp has posted a 4.65 home ERA in 2026 — worse than his 3.83 ERA on the road — so he's not untouchable at Oracle Park.

The Athletics aren't just sending out a bad pitcher — they're doing it short-handed. Zack Gelof picked up a laceration and contusion on his right hand during Tuesday's series opener and has been day-to-day since, sitting out Wednesday's game. Brent Rooker (knee) is on the 10-day IL and wasn't even participating in baseball activities as of Tuesday. Jacob Wilson is listed day-to-day as well. That's real lineup depth missing in a series Oakland is already down 0-2 in. The Giants are short-handed too — Luis Arraez (foot) sat out Wednesday, and Harrison Bader and Heliot Ramos are both on the IL — but San Francisco is the home team coming off back-to-back wins, and their absences haven't slowed them down yet.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
ATH	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	1	4	9	15	0
SF	0	0	0	1	0	5	0	0	0	6	5	0

The Athletics have actually been the better team by record this season — 38-42 beats the Giants' 33-46 without much debate — but form is what counts in a series finale. Oakland has dropped 4 straight after squeaking past the Angels 12-11 in extra innings on June 20, and both losses in this series have been tight, competent Giants performances. San Francisco had dropped 3 straight in Miami before this series started, which makes the back-to-back wins here something of a reset. Neither of these teams is going anywhere in 2026, but one of them has the momentum on a Thursday afternoon.

The bigger conversation in San Francisco isn't really about this series. Giants president Buster Posey said on June 13 that the organization would "have to be open-minded" about the trade deadline unless things turned around in a meaningful way. At 33-46, they haven't. First-year manager Tony Vitello is grinding through a rough introduction to the majors, and veterans like Willy Adames and Rafael Devers may be drawing interest by late July. A sweep on Thursday is a good afternoon. It doesn't move the needle on the season. For the Athletics, avoiding a 5th straight loss is the only thing on the docket — sweeps are for teams going somewhere.

Sources