Alonso and Baltimore Look to Exploit a Struggling Athletics Squad

Two teams trending in opposite directions meet Sunday afternoon at Sutter Health Park, with Baltimore (67-69) trying to claw back toward relevance and Oakland (53-83) deep in a lost season. There's no model read locked in for this one, so we're going purely on the numbers and the matchup itself.

Chris Bassitt is expected to take the mound for Baltimore, while Jeffrey Springs is set to start for the Athletics — though either assignment can shift right up until first pitch. On paper, this is a game Baltimore should be motivated to win. At 67-69, the Orioles aren't mathematically buried, but they're running out of margin for error. Every game from here carries weight, and a matchup against a 53-83 Athletics squad is exactly the kind of opportunity a team in Baltimore's position needs to capitalize on.

The story on the Baltimore side begins and ends with Pete Alonso. He's hitting .269 with 32 home runs and 91 RBI — numbers that make him the clear offensive engine for this club. Alonso has the kind of power profile that can punish a pitching staff that's been part of one of the worst records in baseball, and if Springs struggles to locate early, Alonso is the most dangerous bat in the lineup to make him pay. For Oakland, the offensive leaders are a more modest group. Lawrence Butler leads the team in batting average at .228, Zack Gelof has 14 home runs, and Jeff McNeil leads in RBI with 46 — a relatively modest total that reflects the broader struggles of this Athletics offense.

Without a validated model read to anchor a lean, this one comes down to straightforward logic: Baltimore has the superior individual talent, a legitimate power threat in Alonso, and a reason to play hard down the stretch. Oakland, for all the effort individual players may bring, is a 53-win team for a reason. The edge in this game belongs to Baltimore on paper — but baseball doesn't care about paper, and a team with nothing to lose can be a dangerous thing. Watch Alonso's at-bats against Springs closely. How that matchup unfolds early could set the tone for everything that follows.