The A's play their first regular season games in Las Vegas this week, with the Milwaukee Brewers bringing their entire arsenal of arms to the desert altitude
While the A's official arrival in Las Vegas is still a couple of years in the future, the team will be playing their first regular season games in Sin City beginning on Monday. They'll be welcoming in the Milwaukee Brewers (39-23) from Monday through Wednesday, and then the Colorado Rockies (24-41) from Friday through Sunday.
These six games are meant to be a soft launch of the A's in Vegas, but the team has been struggling to cobble together consistent play of late and has been outscored 18-3 in the first two games of their weekend series with the Houston Astros following a ninth-inning bullpen collapse in Chicago.
One underrated storyline coming into the week in Vegas will be how the park plays, which is something to keep an eye on as the team officially relocates. The A's future home is 2,257 feet above sea level, which is below Coors Field in Colorado, but will be slightly more than double that of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have the current second-highest elevation among MLB clubs.
How the ball flies with the A's taking on the Brewers and Rockies could be very useful data for the front office to look at as they continue building out that roster for 2028. Before the A's arrived at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento, the front office said they knew the ballpark factors for SHP, but not how it would play with MLB sluggers like Brent Rooker and Aaron Judge playing there instead.
The new ballpark will be a dome, so some of those factors will be mitigated, but what the starting point looks like and how much mitigation will be necessary with humidors will start to come into focus in the next week.
A's vs. Brewers Pitching Matchups
Last night, Athletics Roundtable wrote about the team's trade of Joel Kuhnel to Milwaukee, wondering what they may have seen in him that others have missed, much the same as the Brewers have done with a number of pitchers on their roster. One of their biggest success stories this season has been Monday's starter.
Monday: LHP Kyle Harrison (7-1, 1.57) vs. LHP Jeffrey Springs (3-6, 4.37)
Tuesday: LHP Robert Gasser (0-2, 4.73) vs. RHP J.T. Ginn (3-3, 2.74)
Wednesday: RHP Jack Perkins (2-3, 6.19) vs. TBD
Harrison had been a top-100 prospect from 2022-24, but a below league average starter with the San Francisco Giants (91 ERA+) in his time with the club. He ended up being a sizable piece of the Rafael Devers trade with the Boston Red Sox last year, and then was flipped to Milwaukee as part of the Caleb Durbin deal in February.
J.T. Ginn has two distinct advantages on Tuesday. The first is that he's been pitching a lot better than scheduled starter Robert Gasser, and has turned himself into the ace of the A's staff over the past six starts. The second is that he's familiar with Las Vegas Ballpark, and pitching in a minor-league ballpark against big-league hitters.
The good news for the A's and the bad news for baseball fans in Las Vegas is that Jacob Misiorowski just pitched on Saturday in Colorado, tossing seven innings and giving up four hits, one run (unearned), walking three and striking out eight. While we don't know who will be pitching on Wednesday, we do know it won't be their ace.
The first two games of the series will be at 7:05 p.m. PDT, while the Wednesday finale will start an hour earlier at 6:05 p.m. PDT.
How big of a factor will the altitude end up being for the A's in Las Vegas? Join Athletics Roundtable and let us know what you think!
