Oakland can still clinch a series win Thursday despite Wednesday’s no-hitter.
Sometimes the best thing about baseball is that there is always another game to play. The Oakland Athletics were on the wrong side of history Wednesday night as New York Yankees starter Domingo German tossed a perfect game against them in an 11-0 loss. That snapped a streak of 31 years and 339 days since the last time the A’s were no-hit. The last perfect game thrown against the Athletics was in 1904 by Cy Young. Thus another memorable event in a season that everyone will be trying to forget.
By virtue of Tuesday’s 2-1 win, the A’s still have a chance to win the series when they take the field Thursday in the series finale. Oakland hasn’t announced its starter for Thursday, but it is expected that Hogan Harris will see the bulk of the action. Mark Kotsay said prior to Tuesday’s game that Harris will pitch Thursday, but that could come as a starter or that he could follow an opener.
Harris comes into Thursday with a 4.91 ERA and a 4.18 FIP in 33 innings. He wasn’t sharp in his last outing allowing five hits, four walks and four runs in 4 2/3 innings against the Blue Jays. Not counting his disastrous debut, Harris has allowed three runs or less and pitched at least five innings in five of his last six appearances.
The Yankees will go with right-hander Clarke Schmidt who will make his 17th start of the season and comes in pitching well. He allowed just an unearned run over 5 1/3 innings in his last outing against Texas. Schmidt has allowed a total of six earned runs over his last four starts combined. He faced the A’s back in May and held them to two runs and struck out seven in six innings.
Kotsay said Tuesday that his team “didn’t come to compete” but it has been a struggle offensively for most of the month. Oakland is 28th in the league in runs scored in June and are 24th with an 81 wRC+. They are hitting .214/.295/.330 as a team and are 29th in the league in homers for the month with just 18.
Game Info
Game Date/Time: Thursday, June 29, 12:37 p.m. PDT
Location: Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
TV: NBCSCA
Streaming: MLB.tv
Radio: A’s Cast, Bloomberg 960 AM / 103.7 HD2