Mariners jump on Athletics’ rookie pitcher

Published 9:23 am Wednesday, May 27, 2026

Gage Jump showed he has the stuff, but it wasn’t the Major League debut he was hoping for Tuesday night against the Mariners.

The A’s hard-throwing left-handed pitcher got the first start of his MLB career in a pivotal spot against the division rival Seattle, but allowed four runs in five innings while runs were at a premium with the A’s bats getting shut out by Emerson Hancock.

“Overall, the focus for Gage was throwing strikes, and he did that tonight,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said.

Jump took the mound Tuesday after flying from Tacoma, Washington, and landing in Sacramento around 11 a.m. He said he didn’t remember ever pitching the same day after flying, but it was needed given the A’s odd injury situation with their starting pitching staff.

“It was a lot,” Jump said. “It was fun, but I wanted to take today to focus on competing and winning a ballgame, and that didn’t happen. So, frustrated, but it was an awesome experience.”

The A’s promoted Jump on Tuesday, the day after fellow starter Aaron Civale went down with “moderate tendinitis” in his rotator cuff landing him on the injured list after his start in a 9-2 loss on Monday, manager Mark Kotsay said before Tuesday’s game. The A’s shuffled their rotation with ace Luis Severino pushed back from Wednesday to Friday against the New York Yankees after dealing with tightness, Kotsay said.

Jump, a second-round draft pick in 2024, is one of the A’s most highly-touted pitching prospects. He joined the A’s after notching consecutive scoreless outings with Triple-A Las Vegas and on Monday was named Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week thanks to striking out 15 in his last 11 innings.

He made the start with his immediate family and agent in the stands, despite having short notice.

“My mom was sleeping last night and I called my dad, he was going to bed but he was up, and so I told him,” Jump said. “He was like, ‘All right, I’ll get a flight.’ It was nice.”

Kotsay said Jump compares to another former highly-touted left-handed prospect, Jesus Luzardo, who finished seventh in National League Cy Young voting with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2025. Luzardo played for the A’s from 2019 through 2021.

“Young, power throwing left-hander that we had, and now is off to great things obviously with Philly, and pitched really well. I could see a path for Gage very similar then maybe even better,” Kotsay said.

He showed off his 97 mph fastball and slider that registered 87, all coming in at awkward angle with an abbreviated release from the left side. But the A’s were trailing 4-0 when he exited after the top of the fifth inning, and went on to lose 4-1. The A’s (27-28) saw their lead over Seattle in the American League West division race drop to half a game, as the first-place team once again is below .500, this time more than a third of the way through the regular season.

Gage got in trouble when he allowed three runs in the second inning and another in the fourth. The 23-year-old was in the strike zone, getting five strikeouts, but he also allowed nine hits, and the Mariners left six total runners on base in the second through fourth innings.

The A’s turned to Gage after their starters failed to last longer than four innings in three straight games. Athletics starters are 0-6 with a 5.80 ERA over the last 10 games. A starter hasn’t gotten a win since Civale beat the Giants on May 15.

“I think for Gage to get this opportunity tonight, it says a lot about our confidence in him,” Kotsay said. “When we left spring training, we knew it was going to take everyone in that (pitching) room, that was left, towards to the end, to be contributors.”

Kotsay’s message to Jump before the game was simple.

“Don’t think, just go out (and) trust your stuff, trust the catcher, eliminate as much thought process as possible,” Kotsay said. “It’s obviously going to be difficult to slow the game down with the energy that he’s going to have, the excitement, because he’s that competitor. But always remind to take a deep breath and focus on making pitches.”

The A’s offense didn’t offer much help to the rookie starter. They didn’t get their first base runners until the fifth inning when Brent Rooker led off with a walk and Tyler Soderstrom lined a single to center field, but both were stranded.