Following a woeful sweep on the road at the hands of the Kansas City Royals, the A's picked themselves off the floor and won four of the last five contests to conclude the trip away from the Coliseum. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this puts them back in contention for the division title!

Unfortunately, I do know better, so that little goal is at this point well beyond unattainable. So instead of October dreams, we get September sneak peeks at players who could be part of the A's future. Players like Cunningham, Baisley, Pennington and Patterson. In fact, with today's news of Ellis being out for the rest of the campaign, we might see a lot of Pennington and Patterson in the middle of our infield the rest of the way.

The pair, along with seven other A's fortunate enough to be healthy, will be trying to drum up offensive support for the resurgent Dallas Braden, who comes into the contest with a 5-3 mark and 3.72 ERA. He will be opposed by the Rangers' Dustin Nippert, who comes into the game with a 2-4 record and 6.59 ERA. Don't let the ERA fool you though. He threw 4 scoreless innings against these A's in July. Maybe tonight... they'll get to him. Gametime is 7:05.

Go A's!