The A's and Barry Zito with a 4-8 record and a 4.21 ERA takes on Mark "Six Innings Plus" Buerhle with a 10-1 record and a 2.42 ERA.
Zito and the A's look to take the series from the best team in baseball (by record). It won't be an easy task as Buerhle is probably the leading candidate for the Cy Young, even with Garland winning his 13th last night.
This also marks the halfway point of the season and if you had told me before the season started that the A's would finish the first half right around .500, I would've been happy. Given how things went in May, I'm ecstatic.
The A's lineup looks like this:
Kendall
Kotsay
Crosby
Chavez
Kielty
Byrnes
Swisher
Ginter
Ellis
This is pretty much the A's standard lineup against lefties.
The White Sox counter with this lineup:
Ozuna
Iguchi
Thomas
Konerko
Everett
Dye
Rowand
Widger
Crede
I do find it interesting how so many managers go with a righty-heavy lineup against Z despite the fact that righties are only hitting .223 against him and lefties are hitting .255. Righties also slug at a lower rate against Z. Zito only has to face one lefty in this lineup and that's the switch-hitting Carl Everett.
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!!
