Giants, Athletics both on the rise ahead of two-game set

The San Francisco Giants' hopes of improving their standing in the National League wild-card race will have to come at the expense of their local rivals when the Oakland Athletics host a two-game series starting Saturday afternoon.

The Giants, just 49-55 on the morning of July 26 and a potential seller at the trade deadline, took advantage of a bubble in their schedule to go 12-4 in a stretch of 16 straight games against teams with losing records.

That got them back into the thick of the playoff chase, before they dropped three of four to one of their challengers -- the Atlanta Braves -- to begin the week.

The Giants did manage to win the series finale, and now hope to ride that momentum against two more below-.500 teams -- the A's and Chicago White Sox -- before embarking on a rugged slate the rest of the season.

San Francisco got just a split in a two-game home series against the A's during its recent surge, but this time it will show up with a new weapon. Outfielder Grant McCray already has made an impression in just two games, playing a leading role in Thursday's 6-0 win with a successful squeeze bunt and his first big-league homer.

That's after Giants manager Bob Melvin praised other aspects of the 23-year-old center fielder's game.

"It's about the defense right now; it's more athleticism," Melvin said. "We've seen what we've gotten from Tyler (Fitzgerald at shortstop) ... Another speed, dynamic guy on the bases."

The A's have seen several of their young talents blossom of late, a stretch in which they've won seven of eight series sandwiching the split with the Giants. Among the victims have been the Philadelphia Phillies, Houston Astros and, most recently, the New York Mets.

Like the Giants, Oakland enters the series off an inspirational victory. The A's closed out a road-series win over the Mets with a 7-6, come-from-behind effort in New York on Thursday.

Catcher Shea Langeliers was the star of the 2-1 series win over the Mets, reaching base safely 11 times, including five times in each of the two wins. It had been 83 years -- since Frankie Hayes for the Philadelphia A's in 1941 -- since an A's catcher had reached base 11 or more times in the same series.

"It's a lot of fun getting on base," Langeliers said. "I'm seeing the ball well, putting together good at-bats and just building confidence. Just get a good pitch and put a good swing on it. I'm finding that just keeping it that simple, you're capable of stacking good days on top of each other."

Langeliers contributed a double and a single to a 5-2 win at San Francisco in the opener of that series last month. Neither he nor any teammate has ever faced right-hander Hayden Birdsong (3-2, 5.40 ERA), the Giants' scheduled starter on Saturday.

The rookie has lost his last two starts, allowing a total of 12 earned runs in 6 1/3 innings to the Washington Nationals and Detroit Tigers.

Likewise, the Giants are mostly unfamiliar with Oakland's starter in the series opener, righty Osvaldo Bido (3-3, 3.92). The second-year major leaguer served as an opener for the Pittsburgh Pirates in an 8-4 home loss to San Francisco in July 2023, allowing three runs in 2 2/3 innings.

The 28-year-old is coming off the best performance of his two-year career when he blanked the Toronto Blue Jays on two hits over six innings in a 1-0 road win last Saturday.

--Field Level Media