Open Thread: Game 148 - A's at Boston

Weather permitting, the A's will try to regain the upper hand in this series behind Danny Haren, matched up against Bronson Arroyo. The A's are trying to rebound from a baseball game that turned into an intriguing--if consummately frustrating--chess game.

Following up on yesterday's post-game discussions, something to ponder...In every game, I think the manager looks for that moment where the game seems "winable". That usually means one of three things has happened:

1. The team has a big enough lead
   
2. The team leads late enough in the game
   
3. The team is tied but feels it has the upper hand

Yesterday, the A's never had a lead that was big enough, or late enough, to say "this one is ours to grab". The real question is whether or not the A's felt, come the bottom of the 10th inning, they had enough of an upper hand--weighing the fact that on one hand they were on the road and had already used Calero, Rincon, and Duke (with Witasick not available), but on the other hand they were matched up against a weak bullpen in a game both starters had left (and with Timlin already having pitched an inning). Tough call.

The starting lineups should evoke a few reactions:

Kendall
Kotsay
Chavy
Hatteberg
Payton
Johnson
Swisher
Scutaro
Ginter

Damon
Renteria
Ortiz
Ramirez
Nixon
Varitek
Millar
Mueller
Cora