Oakland @ Milwaukee preview
American Family Field
Last Meeting ( Mar 25, 2023 ) Milwaukee 6, Oakland 5
The Oakland Athletics will continue a nine-game road swing while looking for their season-best third consecutive win on Friday when they visit the Milwaukee Brewers.
Milwaukee welcomes Oakland to town as part of a six-game homestand, which reached the midway point with a 6-3 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday.
The Brewers took the first two in the series with a 4-3, 10-inning win on Tuesday and a 10-2 rout on Wednesday, but they gave up all six runs in the final three innings on Thursday. Milwaukee went eight innings without scoring after jumping ahead 3-0.
"We didn't get much going after that," Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said. "We just didn't take many good swings afterward."
Despite falling short of the sweep, the Brewers saw Joey Weimer extend his hitting streak to nine games on Thursday. Wiemer knocked the game-winning single in the 10th inning on Tuesday and homered twice on Wednesday.
"I'm not going to say (my swing is) completely here," Weimer, who was hitting .187 before the current streak began, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "You're always working. You're always trying to figure out something new and keep going."
He looks to keep it going Friday against Oakland starter Luis Medina (0-5, 8.19 ERA).
The right-hander lasted just two innings in his last start, giving up six runs in the Athletics' 12-1 loss at Miami on June 3. Medina's ERA in three appearances on the road is 11.68.
While Medina has struggled on the road, Oakland continues its ongoing road swing with some positive momentum after taking two in a row from the Pittsburgh Pirates.
The A's scored a 9-5 win in the series finale on Wednesday as Ryan Noda hit his seventh home run of the season. He produced two hits in each of the last three games, including an 11-2 win at Pittsburgh on Tuesday, and he logged multiple hits in four of his past five outings.
"We're getting there," Noda said about Oakland's hitting, according to the team's official website. "We're getting close. I'm just trying to battle and get the next guy up. Trying to start a train."
The consecutive wins over the Pirates snapped a five-game losing skid for Oakland, which also experienced a 10-game losing streak from May 17-28.
The A's will try to keep the positive momentum going on Friday when they face Milwaukee right-hander Adrian Houser (2-1, 3.45 ERA).
Houser will be facing Oakland for the first time since July 30, 2019, when he struck out six batters and allowed one run over five innings in a no-decision. That meeting was Houser's only career matchup with the A's.
Houser recorded a win in his most recent start, tossing seven innings of one-run ball in the Brewers' 5-1 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.
--Field Level Media