Reigning American League Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz is looking to escape the sophomore slump.

The Athletics’ first baseman hit .290 last season with 64 extra-base hits — 36 of them home runs — to go with 86 RBIs. But on Saturday night against the Chicago White Sox, his two-run homer in the seventh inning tied the game at 6, and the A’s went on to win 7-6 in 11 innings on Max Muncy’s sacrifice fly.

The teams will finish their three-game series on Sunday afternoon in West Sacramento, Calif., after splitting the first two contests. The White Sox have homered four times in the first two games, the A’s twice.

One of those home runs was Kurtz’s second of the season, off reliever Jordan Leasure in the seventh to make the score 6-6 as the A’s erased an early 5-0 White Sox lead.

Kurtz said he knows his home-run pop can come and go.

“It’s baseball. It’s not always going to happen,” he said of balls going over the fence. “Especially for me. I feel like I’m a streaky power hitter, so when the times come where you put them all together, they’ll come together.”

Kurtz has kept a positive view throughout the first 21 games of the season, putting his focus on team success for the A’s.

“I wouldn’t really call it frustrating with the home runs, because we’re sitting here around .500. That’s all you can focus on, is winning games.”

Hitting only .235, Kurtz has had no trouble getting on base. His 23 walks lead the major leagues. He has 19 hits.

There could be a chance for both offenses to pile on the runs after the teams’ bullpens were stretched in the first two games.

On Friday, when Chicago won 9-2, the Athletics’ bullpen covered 4 1/3 innings, and the A’s used four relievers after starter Luis Severino exited in the sixth inning. On Saturday, the White Sox used six relievers following the departure of Erick Fedde in the fifth.

Munetaka Murakami broke open Friday’s game with a grand slam in the seventh for the White Sox.

On Sunday, the Athletics will turn to left-hander Jeffrey Springs (3-0, 1.46 ERA) as the starter. Springs, with his fourth team in nine seasons, is 1-1 with a 5.54 ERA in four career appearances (two starts) against the White Sox.

Rookie left-hander Noah Schultz (0-1, 6.23 ERA) will start for Chicago. A first-round selection for the White Sox in the 2022 MLB Draft, Schultz will make his second career start after debuting against Tampa Bay on Tuesday. He took the loss, giving up four runs (three earned) in 4 1/3 innings of the 8-5 game.

Schultz said he saw both the positive and negative in his performance.

“A lot of stuff to build off of,” he said. “A lot of things I was proud of, a lot of things I need to work on this week.”

Schultz acknowledged there were “definitely nerves in the first inning” when three runs scored, but he credited himself for the way he “bounced back” and “got ahead of hitters a little bit more” in the following innings.

The White Sox are looking to win their first series win since they swept the Toronto Blue Jays from April 3-5.

–Field Level Media

San Diego right-hander Michael King will try to win his third consecutive start Sunday afternoon when the Padres face the Los Angeles Angels in the rubber game of their three-game series in Anaheim, Calif.

King (2-1, 2.78 ERA), one of the key pieces in the seven-player deal that sent Juan Soto from the Padres to the New York Yankees in December 2023, is trying to bounce back from an injury-plagued 2025 campaign that saw him make just 15 starts and finish with a 5-3 record and 3.44 ERA.

King, 30, has back-to-back six-inning, four-hit starts, allowing two runs in an 8-2 victory at Pittsburgh on April 8 and giving up one run in a 4-1 win over the Seattle Mariners on Tuesday.

King has struck out 20 batters in 22 2/3 innings. His 2.78 ERA ranks in the top 15 in the National League, but he said he still has a “long way to go” to match his 2024 season, when he finished 13-9 with a 2.95 ERA and 201 strikeouts in 173 2/3 innings.

“I still don’t feel super confident in the pitch locations that I’ve got right now,” King said after his win over the Mariners. “Mechanically, I’m definitely making adjustments.”

San Diego, which is 12-2 over its last 14 games, will try to win its fifth consecutive series.

The Padres saw their eight-game winning streak snapped with an 8-0 loss Friday to the Angels and red-hot Jose Soriano, who lowered his major-league-leading ERA to 0.28. Soriano allowed two hits and struck out eight over 5 2/3 innings as San Diego suffered its first shutout loss of the season.

The Padres bounced back to even the series on Saturday with a 4-1 victory. Fernando Tatis Jr. had two hits and two RBIs, Ramon Laureano also drove in two runs, and Mason Miller struck out two in a scoreless ninth to pick up his seventh save.

Laureano and Tatis each had an RBI single in the eighth inning to snap a 17-inning scoreless drought for the Padres, who were held to four hits over six innings while striking out eight times against Los Angeles starter Yusei Kikuchi.

“We know what we’re capable of,” Tatis said. “Obviously, we’re playing some good baseball out there, and Soriano came out and shut the door against us. We just regrouped and we trusted what got us here, and we (went) out and played some really good baseball.”

The Angels finished with just six hits in the loss on Friday but did make the game interesting in the ninth against Miller when Yoan Moncada, robbed of a home run in the second inning by Jackson Merrill, led off with a single and Vaughn Grissom garnered a four-pitch walk to give Los Angeles runners at first and second with one out. But Miller struck out out Logan O’Hoppe and then got Adam Frazier to ground out to second to end the game.

Miller extended his scoreless streak to 31 2/3 innings dating to Aug. 6, 2025. He has struck out 25 batters in 10 1/3 innings this season. Moncada’s single was one of just two hits Miller has given up this season.

“They never stopped fighting,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said of his team. “They keep going. I mean (against) Mason Miller, they get two guys on and the tying run comes to the plate twice. Two shots at it against the best closer in the game. These guys keep fighting, and it’s fun to be a part of.”

Left-hander Reid Detmers (1-1, 3.57 ERA), who has pitched one scoreless inning of relief in his career against the Padres, will start for Los Angeles on Sunday.

King is 0-1 with a 4.15 ERA in four appearances (two starts) against the Angels.

-Field Level Media

Sunday will provide bounce-back opportunities for Garrett Crochet and the Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox will turn to Crochet (2-2, 7.58 ERA) for the first time since his career-worst outing last week when their four-game home series against the Detroit Tigers — tied at a game apiece — continues on Sunday afternoon. First pitch was pushed back three hours to 4:35 p.m. due to a forecast for rain in Boston.

Crochet allowed 11 runs (10 earned) on nine hits, three walks and a hit by pitch in just 1 2/3 innings in his most recent start Monday at the Minnesota Twins, a 13-6 loss. His ERA more than doubled from 3.12.

The major league strikeout leader in 2025 (255 in 205 1/3 innings) did not have a strikeout on Monday.

The ace left-hander had allowed just 13 runs over his eight prior outings, including one postseason appearance in 2025. He gave up more than five runs and pitched less than five innings only once last season — a 7-6 loss to the Houston Astros on Aug. 11 — and had worked at least six frames in two of his first three starts this season.

“Trying to look at it like I would any start. It’s tough to say following the last one, but that’s the only way to separate,” Crochet said.

He also will look to help the Red Sox turn around their fortunes following their 4-1 Saturday loss in which they struck out 10 times and went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position across six innings against two-time reigning Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal.

Boston, a 1-0 winner in 10 innings in Friday’s series opener, has gone back-to-back games scoring one or fewer runs on five or fewer hits.

“You have to chip away with aces,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “You have to make sure when you have your chances to cash in, get it close enough.”

“A 4-0 game in the big leagues, we can turn it around anytime. We couldn’t find the way (against Skubal),” added first baseman Willson Contreras.

Both of Crochet’s career starts against the Tigers came in 2024, but he’s made nine total appearance against them. He is 0-1 with a 1.80 ERA in those games.

Detroit has had mixed results lately, having won seven of its past eight games while also snapping a nine-game road losing streak on Saturday.

“I don’t think any of us are too concerned about our road record (3-9),” Skubal said. “Obviously, it needs to get better and needs to improve. We need to win games on the road, but it’s such a small sample size. … We’re just trying to win every single day we show up to the yard.”

The Saturday game saw the Tigers take a 1-0 lead that they would not relinquish when Kerry Carpenter drew a bases-loaded walk in the first. He added a solo home run in the fourth.

It also was a multi-hit day for Detroit’s touted infield prospect, Kevin McGonigle, who had an RBI single in the fourth and scored a run in the first.

“It was a well-played game all around,” manager A.J. Hinch said. “I thought our at-bats were really tough early.”

With an opportunity to swing the series, the Tigers wil turn to their own southpaw in Framber Valdez (1-1, 3.75 ERA), who is coming off a season-long outing of seven innings on Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals. He allowed just one run on four hits in a 2-1 Detroit win but wasn’t part of the decision.

Valdez has appeared in six games (four starts) against Boston, going 3-2 with a 3.10 ERA.

–Field Level Media