Athletics activate J.T. Ginn to face Reds

Ginn gave up homers to Brooks Lee, Trevor Larnach and Kaelen Culpepper, but thanks to the A’s coming up with four runs in the bottom of the sixth, he improved to 9-8 on the season. He’s the first A’s starter to surrender three homers and win since Cole Irvin on Sept. 17, 2022. He’ll face the Rangers next Tuesday.

Ginn kept the Astros off the board for the first three innings despite allowing four baserunners over that span, but in the fourth inning, the Astros would make him pay for allowing the first two runners to reach base. With runners on second and third and no outs, Christian Walker would hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Isaac Paredes, and in the fifth inning, Ginn would give up back-to-back doubles to Yordan Alvarez and Isaac Paredes, pushing the Astros’ lead to 3-0. Ginn has allowed three earned runs or fewer in four of his last five starts and will look to put together another solid outing in his next start, which is scheduled for Wednesday at home against the Twins.

Ginn struck out seven and walked none, but he gave up eight hits, including a two-run homer to Wyatt Langford. As a result, he took his first loss of the second half and dropped to 8-7 with a 3.53 ERA. He has a favorable matchup in Kansas City coming up next week.

It’s a third straight quality start for Ginn. He has 11 of those in 21 starts this season, which is pretty good for someone who opened up as a mop-up man. He’ll likely make his next start Saturday at home against the Rangers.

Ginn missed two weeks with a blister. Brady Singer matched him exactly tonight, so it’s goes as Ginn’s second no-decision in his last 15 starts. He’s been surprisingly solid ever since moving into the rotation, posting a 3.41 ERA. He’ll pitch in Boston on Sunday.

Ginn could potentially return to the Athletics’ rotation at some point next week after hitting the shelf with a blister issue earlier this month.

This is surprising since Ginn was tremendous in his last start, taking a no-hitter into the seventh inning against the Nationals. He clearly picked up a blister during that performance and will now miss his next two turns in the rotation.

Ginn took a no-hitter into the seventh before giving up a single to Keibert Ruiz. A day after giving up 23 runs, the A’s were able to blank the Nats until the ninth inning, and put up a couple of touchdowns of runs themselves. Ginn was lit up in his previous start Sunday, but this — to an extent, he’s not taking no-nos deep into games, of course — is much more in line with how he’s pitched for most of the year. He struck out seven against three walks while landing 50-of-82 pitches for strikes. He’ll be back on the bump against the Twins over the weekend, and take a solid 3.46 ERA into that outing.

The A’s will set their rotation to start the second half as Jump on Friday, J.T. Ginn on Saturday, and Jacob Lopez on Sunday in their three-game set against the Nationals. Jump, 3-4 with a 3.51 ERA, struggled a bit towards the beginning of July but bounced back against the White Sox. He’s definitely a viable mixed-league starter when he’s not pitching at home.

Ginn was so-so after giving up six runs in the first, but the thing about that is, he gave up six runs in the first; including a three-run homer ty Braden Montgomery. The right-hander also allowed a leadoff homer to Sam Antonacci in what can only be described as a clunker of a start to end Ginn’s first half. He did strike out seven, if you’re desperate for a positive. The real positive is that Ginn was solid for the majority of the first half, and he’ll have a chance to bounce back after the All-Star break.