Caution: Ranting, Next 3 Miles
Here in game 102, the A's take on the Detroit Tigers for the first time all year. When the A's finally play the Royals next week, Oakland will have just hit the exact 2/3 mark for the regular season. How absurd is the imbalanced schedule? The A's, the Twins, and the Yankees start play today separated by 1 game in the WC hunt, yet those three teams, currently fighting for the same spot, are playing significantly different schedules for the season. All this so the A's and Twins can go all of April, May, June, and July without playing each other once. Random rule alert: It's okay for the A's and Angels, Twins and White Sox, Yankees and Red Sox, to play each other 19 times during the regular season, but they can't play each other in the ALDS even if that is the correct matchup to force the WC team to play the division winner with the best record.
One final rant and then we'll bring you to the "A's game" portion of the program. The MLBPA files a grievance on Kenny Rogers' behalf. Rogers' defense being what, "I only assaulted two of them?" Has anyone ever had a worse case to try to defend? OK, maybe the defense attorney for the farmer's wife, but that's about it.
Tonight it's Rich Harden (8-4, 2.28) against Sean Douglass (3-0, 2.10). The starting lineups:
Polanco
Guillen
Shelton
Ordonez
White
Rodriguez
Young
Monroe
Inge
Kendall
Swisher
Crosby
Chavez
Hatteberg (DH)
Kielty
Johnson
Payton
Ellis
