Jacob Lopez and Cody Bradford are overdue for victories.
Both left-handers will get their next opportunities on Wednesday afternoon when the Athletics face the Texas Rangers in the finale of their three-game series in Arlington, Texas.
Lopez (5-4, 4.82 ERA) has made six consecutive starts for the A’s without receiving a decision, even though he has pitched well enough in each outing to earn a win.
Bradford (0-3, 3.42) will seek his first victory in his sixth start for the Rangers since returning from a nearly two-year absence that included internal brace surgery on his throwing elbow.
The Rangers (69-70) will try for a three-game sweep of the series vs. the Athletics (53-86) after recording an 8-1 win on Monday and an 8-5 victory on Tuesday.
The A’s will try to break a five-game losing streak.
Lopez’s string of well-pitched games dates even further back than his past six starts, to when he rejoined the rotation as an opener on July 10, three days after he was recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas.
Lopez earned his most recent victory on July 24, when he allowed one hit over five shutout innings in a 2-0 win against the Minnesota Twins. He’s gone at least five innings and allowed two runs or less in every start since then but hasn’t been rewarded with a personal victory.
Lopez’s ERA over his last nine starts is 2.18, with 54 strikeouts and 16 walks in 45 1/3 innings. He most recently allowed two runs (one earned) and three hits in five innings in his team’s 4-3 loss in 10 innings to the Baltimore Orioles on Friday.
Lopez isn’t about to get comfortable, however. He was feeling strong last season too, but then missed the last six weeks with a flexor strain in his throwing elbow.
“I was pitching really well, and I thought I was crushing it in the weight room and training room,” Lopez said. “My body felt really well. It’s just, elbow stuff kind of happens. You can’t outwork it, but I think just trying to have a dialogue with the trainers and the strength coach as best as I can to try to finish strong is the key.”
Lopez has made six appearances (four starts) against the Rangers in his career, going 0-2 with a 5.48 ERA.
Bradford, meanwhile, most recently allowed three runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings of a 6-1 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday.
“I thought Cody was really good and gave us a chance to win,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “Just couldn’t get anything going offensively.”
Bradford played a key role out of the bullpen in the Rangers’ march to their lone World Series title in 2023, going 1-0 with a 1.17 ERA in five relief appearances.
He missed 3 1/2 months during the first half of the 2024 season with back issues, then all of 2025 with a bad elbow that needed to be surgically repaired.
Bradford went nearly two years without pitching in an MLB game before throwing 4 1/3 shutout innings in his return on Aug. 5, a 6-0 win against the San Francisco Giants.
Bradford has made five appearances (four starts) against the A’s in his career. He is 1-0 with a 2.01 ERA in those games.
–Field Level Media
