Two sparkplug outfielders who have helped deliver wins in vastly different ways the last two days hope to continue to be a nuisance for opposing pitchers Sunday afternoon when Sam Antonacci and the Chicago White Sox face Harrison Bader and the host San Francisco Giants.

The teams have split the first two contests of a three-game set, each using a big inning to provide the difference in blowout wins.

Antonacci drew two hit-by-pitches and scored twice in a nine-run fourth inning in Friday’s series opener, which the White Sox won 9-4.

The 23-year-old leadoff batter has yet to get a hit in the series but has scored three times, which doesn’t surprise his Chicago teammates. He’s been hit by pitches 10 times this season, which is tied for the major league lead.

“Grinder. He’s our Cam Skattebo,” Davis Martin, Friday’s winning pitcher, assured reporters, making a comparison to the New York Giants’ running back. “Just any way imaginable to get the job done, he’s going to get the job done. And everybody knows it. To spearhead that lineup, I couldn’t think of anybody better.”

Giants fans are starting to see some of the same in Bader, who joined the club as a free agent over the winter, mostly as a defensive addition. But the veteran has been surprising offensively, hitting five home runs in 25 games in a season interrupted for a month by a hamstring injury.

Bader appeared to have disappointed the big crowd Saturday when, with the Giants leading 5-3, he popped up with the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth inning. But White Sox third baseman Miguel Vargas lost the foul ball in the sun, giving Bader new life, and the veteran responded with a grand slam to cap a six-run uprising.

Bader gladly accepted a Gatorade soaking from teammate Willy Adames during a postgame television interview on the field.

“Feels good,” Bader, 31, insisted. “Every single day since I was 5 years old, I dreamed about playing this game at a high level. I love what I do, so it feels real good to deliver for my team.”

The pitching matchup on Sunday will feature two left-handers: the White Sox’s Noah Schultz (2-3, 4.93 ERA) and the Giants’ Robbie Ray (3-6, 4.28).

Schultz will make the eighth start of his rookie season, his fifth on the West Coast. He already has beaten the Athletics and San Diego Padres on the road, and he has lost at the Los Angeles Angels and Seattle Mariners.

The 22-year-old has never faced the Giants, who hit three home runs in a game for just the fourth time all season Saturday. Schultz has served up just three homers in his seven starts this year, never more than one in a game.

Meanwhile, Ray is coming off his worst start of the season, roughed up for 10 runs (nine earned) in a 12-2 shellacking at Arizona last Monday.

Ray will face the White Sox for the sixth time in his career, having gone 1-2 with a 2.78 ERA against them.

– Field Level Media

San Diego Padres manager Craig Stammen cracked a joke about a lack of hitting on Saturday night, when his team managed only two hits in a 2-0 shutout of the visiting Athletics.

“If you want to put it into football terms, we got our safety and got out of there,” he said.

Stammen will hope for a bit more offense from his team, as well as a series sweep, on Sunday afternoon when the Padres wrap up their weekend series against the A’s.

All jokes aside, winning without much offense has been the norm for San Diego much of this season. The Padres are last in the majors in batting average (.219) and are tied for last with San Francisco in on-base percentage (.293). San Diego stands 27th in slugging percentage (.365) and 24th in runs (209).

Yet the Padres are 11 games over .500 and have won six of their past eight games, mainly because they seem to score runs when absolutely necessary. And San Diego rarely gives up a late-inning lead because of its high-leverage arms in the bullpen.

Stammen said the Padres will figure things out offensively, citing the eight walks they drew Saturday night as proof they are taking the proper approach at the plate.

“We celebrate the small wins, and if we have enough of those, it’s going to turn into big things,” he said. “Any time we can find a way to hand a lead to our bullpen, it’s a good day for us.”

Having right-hander Michael King (4-2, 2.31 ERA) on the mound typically gives San Diego a chance to win, and he will start against the A’s on Sunday. King excelled in a 1-0 shutout of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday, firing seven scoreless innings and allowing just four hits while walking two and striking out nine.

In three career games against the Athletics, two of them starts, King is 1-0 with a 3.75 ERA. The win, 5-4, occurred on April 7, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif.

Opposing King will be right-hander Luis Medina, who’s 1-1 with a 2.41 ERA in 14 relief appearances. This will be the first start since 2024 for Medina, who fired two scoreless innings Wednesday night at the Los Angeles Angels in a 6-5, 10-inning win for San Diego.

In his only previous game against San Diego, Medina worked 3 2/3 innings of relief in 2023, striking out seven and walking four while allowing two hits and an earned run.

This will likely be a second straight game in which the A’s bullpen does most of the work. J.T. Ginn left after only 2 1/3 innings Saturday night because he had thrown 73 pitches, given up two runs, walked six and hit a batter, forcing relievers to record 17 outs.

The bullpen gave up just two hits during its lengthy stint to keep the Athletics in contention, but the A’s couldn’t come up with timely hits for a second straight game. They were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and stranded eight runners.

But San Diego did see Nick Kurtz tie Rickey Henderson for the third-longest on-base streak in franchise history. Kurtz’s first-inning single marked the 46th straight game he has reached base. If he makes it 47 on Sunday, he’ll tie Jimmie Foxx for second. Mark McGwire leads with a 62-game streak.

“Every day is a new day for him,” Athletics manager Mark Kotsay said of Kurtz. “He’s not a hitter that chases hits. He’s a hitter that takes what’s given to him.”

–Field Level Media

Three-time All-Star second baseman Ketel Marte has spent much of this season underperforming with the bat.

But the Arizona Diamondbacks star is on a hot streak and has increased his batting average 42 points in just seven games entering Sunday afternoon’s contest against the Colorado Rockies in Phoenix.

Marte went 3-for-4 with a two-run homer to lead Arizona to a 5-4 victory over the Rockies on Saturday night. The Diamondbacks improved to 2-1 in the four-game series that will conclude on Sunday.

Marte’s homer came in the fourth inning, when he slammed a first-pitch fastball from Michael Lorenzen 424 feet to right field.

That was the signature swing of the night as Marte improved to 14-for-28 (.500) during the seven-game stretch. He has three homers, three doubles, nine RBIs and has scored nine times while lifting his batting average to a season-best .251.

Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said Marte is locked in and not swinging at pitches out of the zone.

“When he’s stubborn, you can see these results; that’s what happens,” Lovullo said.

Not surprisingly, the Diamondbacks are 6-1 during Marte’s hot streak.

Nolan Arenado helped the Arizona cause with a two-run double against his former club on Saturday. Arenado has 11 extra-base hits (nine doubles, two homers) this month.

Left-handed-hitting TJ Rumfield homered to left-center as part of a 3-for-4 night for the Rockies, who have dropped 10 of their past 14 games.

Rumfield’s blast ended a power drought that saw Colorado match a franchise record by going seven games without a homer. The Rockies previously had seven-game outages in 2007 and 2014.

Troy Johnston had two hits and an RBI to raise his batting average to .323, and Hunter Goodman also had two hits for Colorado.

Rumfield, who is batting .289, leads major league rookies with 54 hits.

“TJ put up four solid at-bats on a night in which the ball definitely wasn’t flying,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer said. “To get it the other way, that’s real strength. TJ’s had a solid approach since the beginning of the year.”

Colorado’s Jake McCarthy, who spent the past five seasons with Arizona, is just 1-for-13 in the series.

Rockies infielder Willi Castro was scratched prior to Saturday’s game due to low-back tightness. Castro told reporters he thinks he’ll miss two to three more games.

Arizona placed left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on the 10-day injured list Saturday because of a hamstring strain. He was hurt during the sixth inning of Friday’s game while making a sliding catch of Rumfield’s fly to shallow left.

The Diamondbacks were mindful that Gurriel returned to action last month after a right ACL tear sustained last September. He was back roughly 7 1/2 months after being hurt.

“He probably would have gotten better in three or four days, but we wanted to make sure that we give him enough time, given what he’s worked through, and put his body through to get back to this point,” Lovullo said.

Rockies left-hander Jose Quintana (2-2, 4.08 ERA) will oppose Diamondbacks right-hander Ryne Nelson (1-3, 5.19) on Sunday.

Quintana, 37, beat the Texas Rangers 7-6 on Monday when he gave up three runs and seven hits over 5 2/3 innings. He has struggled against the Diamondbacks, going 1-3 with a 6.85 ERA in nine career starts.

Arenado is a lowly 3-for-26 against Quintana despite hitting two homers, and Corbin Carroll is just 1-for-10 vs. the left-hander. Marte is 5-for-14 with a homer.

Nelson is winless in seven starts since defeating the New York Mets on April 8. He is 1-1 with an 8.80 ERA in three career starts vs. Colorado.

The Rockies’ Ezequiel Tovar is 3-for-7 against Nelson.

–Field Level Media