The A's haven't won a road series since they opened the season at Baltimore, but weather permitting, they have a chance to take two out of three from Atlanta with a win today. Barry Zito, coming off a well-pitched 2-1 loss to the Nationals, is opposed by a fellow southpaw in Horacio Ramirez.
Ramirez is 4-4 with a 5.05 ERA, and has a very unimpressive walk-to-strikeout ratio of 21:23. (I know, you're thinking "Wow, what Horacio!") If you like being optimistic and don't mind small sample sizes, you can hang your hopes on this: in day games, Ramirez is 0-2 with a 16.43 ERA. He is described by some scouts as a "Tom Glavine type," which offers the A's a tune-up for their next game on Tuesday, when they are scheduled to face another "Tom Glavine type" named Tom Glavine.
The starting lineups are thusly and as follows:
Kendall
Kotsay
Kielty
Chavez
Byrnes
Ellis
Swisher
Scutaro
Zito
Furcal
M. Giles
Franco
A. Jones
Marte
Jordan
Pena
Langerhans
Ramirez
