The Athletics will be looking for better results on Sunday as they host the Houston Astros in West Sacramento, Calif., with each team vying for its first series win against a divisional opponent in 2026.

It’s been a tale of two blowouts so far in this first meeting between American League West rivals this season, with the A’s taking the opener 11-4 on Friday night and Houston responding with an 11-0 shutout on Saturday.

Athletics manager Mark Kotsay is looking for a better effort from his team after that big loss.

“We didn’t do anything well today,” he said postgame on Saturday. “That game was reflective of, in my opinion, past performances that we feel like we have put behind us, and we need to put behind us as a team.”

He was critical of the pitching staff’s performance after five pitchers combined to give up 18 hits, walk 13 batters and strike out only five.

“This is not reflective of the expectation level of our staff right now,” Kotsay said. “We talk about beating ourselves all the time. Today, we completely beat ourselves.”

The A’s are second in walks in the majors with 47 as a staff in eight games, trailing only the Los Angeles Angels (48). Kotsay said his pitchers need to start locating their offspeed offerings better.

“You’ve got to be able to keep big-league hitters off-balance,” he said. “You’ve got to have some type of secondary (pitch) you can throw in the zone for a strike and land it and get ahead.”

He’ll also be hoping for an improvement from Jacob Lopez as he makes his first home start of 2026.

Lopez (0-1, 6.75 ERA) struggled for control as he walked five batters and gave up three runs in four innings of a 4-0 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Monday.

He did not take a decision in either of his previous two career starts against Houston, putting up a 0.87 ERA in 10 1/3 innings, allowing one run on six hits.

If the A’s are able to pull out a victory, they will win their first series of the young season after starting 1-5 against the Toronto Blue Jays and Atlanta Braves.

Lance McCullers Jr. (1-0, 1.29 ERA) will take the mound for Houston for the rubber game. McCullers picked up the win in his season debut on Monday against Boston, striking out nine and allowing one run over seven innings. Over 15 starts against the Athletics in his career, McCullers is 7-3 with a 3.32 ERA.

“He kept attacking,” Astros manager Joe Espada said after McCullers’ outing against the Red Sox. “He set the tone from the very beginning. He was going to control the at-bats.”

McCullers has been in the Houston organization for his entire career, drafted in 2012 and debuting in 2015. He was an All-Star in 2017 when the Astros won the World Series, but he has thrown more than 100 innings in a season just once since 2018 while battling multiple injuries. He missed the 2019, 2023 and 2024 campaigns.

He will be looking to build on the work of Tatsuya Imai, who worked 5 2/3 scoreless innings and struck out nine in Houston’s win on Saturday to set up Sunday’s decisive Game 3.

Last season, the Athletics won the head-to-head series with Houston 8-5.

–Field Level Media

Two pitchers with Cy Young Award aspirations wil meet for the first time Sunday when right-handers Kodai Senga and Logan Webb go head-to-head as the New York Mets and host San Francisco Giants complete a four-game series.

The Mets have won two of the first three in a series in which no outcome has been closer than five runs.

New York starters Nolan McLean and Clay Holmes have dominated 10-3 and 9-0 wins the past two nights, limiting the Giants to a total of one earned run and four hits in 12 1/3 innings.

They will hand the ball and a slumping opponent to Senga (0-1, 3.00 ERA), who had teammates and coaches gushing after his first start of the season, when he allowed just four hits and two runs over six innings at St. Louis on Tuesday. He struck out nine of the 25 batters he faced but got no support in a 3-0 defeat.

“It was a great start to the year,” Senga said afterward. “It makes me excited for this year. It felt like I’m a starting pitcher again.”

The 33-year-old right-hander battled injuries during a 7-6 campaign a year ago. But he was back on his 2023 All-Star form, pitching coach Justin Willard told reporters, which already is doing wonders for his confidence.

“This guy wants to be great,” Willard said. “I think you saw it (in 2023) when he was here, and then a couple injuries derailed him a bit. But he wants to be great. He wants to be the best pitcher in baseball. And he’s going to do things he needs to do to be that.”

While his 1-0 record wouldn’t indicate it, Senga has struggled in his three career starts against the Giants, roughed up for 14 hits and 11 runs in 14 innings. He also has walked 12, contributing to a 7.07 ERA.

Senga will see a Giants team that has struggled both in the field and at the plate in the past two games. Manager Tony Vitello clearly was more concerned about the former when defending his losing pitcher, Landen Roupp, after Saturday’s defeat.

“Too many innings where there are four outs that have to be recorded,” he lamented in his postgame press conference.

“They (the Mets) have done a really good job of swinging the bat, but you’d be hard-pressed to find an inning where they scored where there wasn’t the potential for the inning to be over. Our defense, we can certainly do better.”

Hoping for more help behind him will be Webb (1-1, 7.36), who bounced back from a shaky Opening Day start against the New York Yankees to limit the San Diego Padres to three hits and three runs over six innings in a 9-3 road win Tuesday. He allowed seven runs (six earned) in five innings in a 7-0 loss to the Yankees.

The two-time All-Star is 3-2 with a 3.21 ERA in seven career starts against the Mets.

After racking up a total of 27 hits in its last two games, New York likely will once again be without Juan Soto, who experienced tightness in his right calf in the first inning of Friday’s win.

Jared Young started in his spot Saturday, then gave way to Tyrone Taylor, who belted a game-breaking, three-run home run as a pinch hitter. Taylor finished the game with four RBIs.

–Field Level Media

The Ottawa Senators may be running out of time as they run into one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.

The Senators do have a plan for Sunday’s game against the visiting Carolina Hurricanes.

“Simplify and try to work a little harder,” Ottawa forward Shane Pinto said. “Yeah, (Sunday) is a big game. Everybody knows the magnitude of these games.”

The Senators (39-27-10, 88 points) have lost four of their last five games as they compete with a few other teams for one of the last playoff spots in the Eastern Conference. They dropped a 4-1 decision to the visiting Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon.

There’s little room for error on the part of Ottawa.

“With some of our injuries, we’ve got to be spot-on,” Senators coach Travis Green said.

The Hurricanes have played several desperate teams recently and they find benefits in that.

“When you play teams that are kind of on that bubble, it’s good for you to prep for the playoffs,” Carolina forward Seth Jarvis said.

The Hurricanes (49-21-6, 104 points) already have secured a playoff spot and are one point away from clinching the Metropolitan Division title.

“We all know that the prize is still out there,” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said of the postseason ahead. “This basically qualifies you to go after it.”

They’ve won four of their last five games, including Saturday night’s 4-3 home victory against the New York Islanders. In their last two games combined, the Hurricanes have allowed opponents to put only 26 shots on goal.

“That was pretty impressive,” Brind’Amour said. “I think our guys played the way we want them to.”

Green said there were uncharacteristic defensive lapses from the Senators in Saturday’s game against Minnesota.

“That’s easy to say, ‘Play with urgency,'” Green said. “Our guys are trying. Our guys want to win. They want to win bad.”

A clunky power play didn’t help matters for the Senators.

“Their execution can probably be better,” Green said. “We’ve got to learn from the game, and we’ve got another game (Sunday). That’s the great part of this season, a lot of games coming, a lot of games that matter and we’ve got to respond (Sunday).”

The Hurricanes have been strong on special teams. They’ve notched a league-high 12 short-handed goals this season, including one in each of the past three contests.

Jarvis had two goals Saturday, pushing his team-leading total to 32.

“I’ve had a lot of chances, but to see it go in is huge,” Jarvis said after ending his three-game goal drought.

Ottawa had defenseman Jake Sanderson back in the lineup for the first time in nearly a month. He said he was a little rusty but is determined to make an impact.

“I think this time of the year everybody is playing with some sort of injuries,” Sanderson said.

Carolina will have goalie Frederik Andersen back in net after Brandon Bussi worked Saturday night.

Hurricanes center Sebastian Aho is riding a five-game point streak (one goal, five assists).

Carolina’s visit marks the third game in Ottawa’s five-game homestand.

–Field Level Media