Gage Jump blows 3-0 lead in sixth versus Rangers

The Red Sox put a pair of runs on the board in the opening frame, scoring two on a single, walk, double steal, and a base hit. Jump then settled in nicely, pitching five more scoreless innings while collecting an impressive 11 strikeouts for his first career double-digit strikeout performance. The 23-year-old left-hander will take a 4.46 ERA, 1.46 WHIP, and an 84/33 K/BB ratio across 72 2/3 innings into a start against the Rangers in Sacramento on Friday.

Jump walked a career-high six batters, but it didn’t hurt him severely until the fourth inning. After issuing a pair of one-out walks, he gave up a two-run single to Gleyber Torres. He walked another batter before being pulled for Elvis Alvarado, who served up a two-run double to close the book on Jump’s afternoon. The rookie southpaw has walked 14 batters in 14 1/3 innings over his last three starts, so he’s much too erratic to trust in mixed fantasy leagues. He’ll get the Red Sox on the road next time out.

Jump dominated the Red Sox in Sacramento on Tuesday, holding Boston scoreless over six innings. He scattered three hits and stranded four walks, striking out seven on 90 pitches. The 23-year-old left-hander will look to build on the strong outing when he takes a 4.00 ERA, 1.40 WHIP, and a 68/25 K/BB ratio across 63 innings into a start against the Tigers in Sacramento on Sunday.

Jump has lost five straight starts, giving up 20 runs and seven homers over 21 2/3 innings in the process. He’s still missing plenty of bats, but not enough to make up for the homers and walks. The A’s don’t have any great options to replace him, but they still might want to send him down to regain some confidence anyway. If not, he’ll face Boston next week.

Jump was perfect through two before a walk and three hits produced a three-run third inning. In the fourth, he walked a batter with one out and gave up an RBI double with two outs, resulting in his removal after 87 pitches. It his fourth consecutive loss, leaving him 3-5 with a 3.78 ERA since his callup. He remains one of the game’s most intriguing young pitchers, but in a really tough situation with the A’s, he’s probably just a streaming play at the moment. He’ll likely pitch in Arizona on Wednesday.

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.

It was a nice rebound outing for Jump, but with the A’s getting shut out, he dropped his third start in a row anyway. While Jump was roughed up in his previous two outings, this makes five times in nine major league starts that he has allowed one or no runs. He’ll take a 3-4 record and a 3.51 ERA into the All-Star break. It’s likely that he’ll face the Nationals next weekend.

Jump was bad from, well, the jump; allowing a homer in the first and two more runs in the second. He gave up three more in the third, and to say he didn’t match the effort of Eury Pérez — who threw seven perfect innings — is quite the understatement. Jump has struggled in his last two outings while allowing 11 runs, and will try and rebound from those disappointing efforts against the White Sox in Chicago this weekend.

This was still kind of impressive from Jump. One of baseball’s best offenses certainly got the better of the 23-year-old, but while free passes could have turned this into a true massacre, he didn’t walk anyone and struck out five. Jump is still 3-2 with a 2.93 ERA and a 40/10 K/BB over 40 innings through seven big-league starts. As tough as the situation is in Sacramento, he’s not a lock to remain useful in mixed leagues over the rest of the season. However, he seems well on his way to becoming an excellent major league starting pitcher. He’ll get the Marlins on Sunday.

It might seem like the A’s have a quality offense this year, but it’s largely a product of their Triple-A ballpark; they came into tonight hitting .266/.351/.462 with 216 runs scored at home and .229/304/.367 with 149 runs scored on the road. Jump would appear to be legit with his 96-mph fastball and plus slider, but with no support in San Francisco tonight, he remained 3-1 with a 2.04 ERA through six starts. He’ll pitch at home against the Dodgers next week. making him a weak play in shallow leagues.