The A's and King Richard with a 9-4 record and a 2.53 ERA take on the Twins and Carlos Silva with a 7-5 record and a 3.33 ERA.
The A's have now set a record for the best 40-game stretch in Oakland history at 33-7. As a matter of fact, this is the best stretch in Major League Baseball over a 40-game stretch since the New York Yankees went 34-6 in 1998.
Think about that for a second. The best 40-game stretch since 1998...the Mariners didn't do it in their magical season...the Red Sox didn't do it last season...the Cardinals didn't do it.
This in a year after dealing two of the Big Three and the doomsday predictions ran rampant all over sports-talk land.
As for the game tonight, both Harden and Zito got hit hard one right after another last week. If the A's can win one of the next two games, they will have taken 16 out of the last 18 series. Something interesting about Harden. He is 12-3 with a 1.36 ERA in his career when tossing seven or more innings.
The A's go with the following lineup:
Kendall
Kotsay
Crosby
Chavez
Johnson
Kielty
Hatteberg
Swisher
Ellis
The Twins counter with this group:
Stewart
Punto
Mauer
LeCroy
Jones
Morneau
Ford
Cuddyer
Bartlett
Harden won his only career start versus Minnesota, giving up two earned runs and going 6 2/3 innings.
By the way, after the game tonight, I'll be pulling the Lewis Wolff interview up to the front page again to make sure that all AN readers have a chance to see it before it disappears.
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!!