Am I obligated here to make some sort of bad pun about floor cleanliness, or to make speculative p=mv calculations?

Well, I ain't gonna do either.

The A's go for their third consecutive win against the Indians, before flying out for a series in Toronto starting Tuesday.

Joe Blanton starts for the A's, and Cliff Lee for the Indians.

Expect to see Mike Sweeney and Emil Brown in the lineup again (both righties, both with a lot of exposure to Lee having played in the AL Central for most of their careers). I'd hope that Geren holds Buck out of the lineup one more day, facing a (not-so-tough) lefty. Other than that (especially still this early in the season and with an off-day tomorrow), I'd anticipate basically the same lineup as yesterday.

Funny the way memory plays tricks on you: I could have sworn that Lee had faced the A's more than 7 times in his career. After Sweeney and Brown, the only active Athletic with double-digit ABs vs. Lee is ... Bobby Crosby. Granted, there's been some serious roster turnover.

Blanton, on the other hand, has had a bit more exposure to the Indians' lineup. As per Blanton's pitching style, he's given up a fair amount of hits, but been able to (mostly) minimize their damage by not walking too many.

While Icin' Joe doesn't have many appreciable platoon splits, he does have an interesting penchant for giving up longballs to righties: over his career, he's surrendered 39 HRs to right-handed hitters in 332 innings, vs. 18 in 313 innings to lefties. And righty Ryan Garko has 2 HRs in 6 career ABs against Joe (including going back-to-back with Jhonny Peralta last September). I'd expect Blanton to pitch aggressively in the zone against the Tribe and to continue his success in keeping his walks down, but to pitch very carefully to Garko with men on base.

Off-the-cuff Rev Halofan-style prediction: Blanton does, indeed, keep his walks and pitches down, but also does surrender another solo HR to Garko (approaching Garko more aggressively with a lead and no one on base in front of him). Seven innings, 6 hits, 1 BB, 1 R. Cust and Crosby continue to hit the ball hard, the sun peeks through around noon to warm up the air, and the A's score 5. Street comes in for some work ... and gives up another solo HR. 5-2, A's.

Lineups
Cleveland
Sizemore CF
Cabrera 2B
Hafner DH
Garko 1B
Peralta SS
Dellucci LF
Michaels RF
Marte 3B
Shoppach C

A's
Buck RF
Ellis 2B
Barton 1B
M Sweeney DH
E Brown LF
Crosby SS
Hannahan 3B
Suzuki C
R Sweeney

In M*A*S*H news, Duke is set for an MRI today, and Richie Robnett, well ...

Robnett is going to play through Sunday with the Ports before undergoing surgery on Monday in San Francisco to remove a benign tumor from his stomach. He expects to miss seven to 10 days and then return to the River Cats.

Poll

Rev Halofan-style off-the-cuff game predictions ...

• Should best be left to those more professional than monkeyball
• Should best be left to those more amateurish than monkeyball
• Anger the Woofing Gods
• Are OK, since monkeyball earned some leeway with his "How does Cust keep doing it?" extended game thread last year
• Make Baby Jesus cry
• Make Baby Richard Dawkins cry (PaulThomas only)
• Make Baby Richard Dawson cry (let's start the feud!)

  59 votes | Results