Athletics

Wilson walked and scored a run in the sixth inning and finished hitless in three at-bats during his return to the lineup following a nearly five-week absence recovering from a shoulder injury. The 24-year-old shortstop figures to bat towards the bottom of the order, but it wouldn’t be a complete shock to see him get a chance in the leadoff spot ahead of Nick Kurtz.

Muncy’s double tied the game at 4-4 in the sixth. He also singled and scored to make it 6-4 in the eighth. Muncy is 3-for-12 with four RBI in three games since coming off the injured list. His sky-high strikeout rate and middling defense make it unclear whether he’s the right option for the A’s at third base, but he should be in line for plenty of playing time now with Zack Gelof likely to make starts all over the place.

Jump got through five scoreless before allowing two singles and a walk to open the sixth. Justin Sterner came in and wound up surrendering a sac fly and a three-run homer to put the A’s down 4-2 and raise Jump’s ERA from 1.93 to 3.05. Even though he was pitching on the moon tonight, Jump still hasn’t allowed a homer in 23 1/3 innings as a major leaguer. He’ll face the Pirates in Sacramento next week.

Harris retired Troy Johnston to end the eighth and then struck out two batters in a scoreless ninth to lower his ERA to 2.67. Harris is the favorite for saves in the Athletics pen right now, but because he is the team’s best left-handed reliever, he will pitch earlier in games at times.

The 24-year-old infielder had been sidelined since May 11 due to a left shoulder subluxation. He returns at just the right time too as the A’s lose Brent Rooker (knee) to the injured list on Friday. Prior to landing on the shelf, Wilson had been hitting .292/.311/.398 with three homers, 19 RBI and a pair of steals in his first 39 games.

Rooker had missed Wednesday’s game against the Brewers due to the issue and didn’t feel any improvement after Thursday’s off day, so they’ll sit him down and let the injury heal properly. Jacob Wilson was activated from the injured list in a corresponding move on Friday.

Civale, who has been sidelined with shoulder tendonitis since May 26th, struck out seven batters and threw 38 of his 56 pitches for strikes. He will likely need two more rehab appearances and then he can return to the Athletics’ rotation and to the streaming radar in deeper formats.

Milwaukee scored single runs in the first, second and third innings and then never mustered another. The A’s came back with an Alika Williams homer in the sixth and homers from Carlos Cortes and Butler in the seventh to prevail. Butler’s homer was his fourth of the season. He was starting for just the fifth time in 22 games, as the A’s are mostly using Henry Bolte and Carlos Cortes over him in the outfield against righties. However, they had room for all three tonight with Brent Rooker hurting. Butler is batting .165/.251/.256 in 183 plate appearances. There’s still reason to think he’ll go back to being useful as a platoon guy against righties, but first he needs to show the A’s that he’s better than the alternatives. It’s not clear that he is.

Gary Sánchez and Jackson Chourio homered off Perkins, who hasn’t pitched very well in either start since being added to the A’s rotation last week. It seems likely that he’ll remain a starter after Kade Morris was sent down Wednesday, but he’s only of interest for fantasy purposes as a reliever. He’ll likely face the Pirates next week.

Alvarado retired Christian Yelich, Jackson Chourio and Brice Turang to become the eighth A’s reliever to earn a save this season. He’s pitched 4 1/3 scoreless innings with nine strikeouts since being recalled from Las Vegas five days ago. Alvarado made the A’s out of spring training, only to be sent down with an 8.78 ERA after 10 appearances. Consider him part of the saves mix now, but if we were going to roster an A’s reliever, Hogan Harris is still the one we’d choose.