Right now, the A's are looking like the late-afternoon sun: tomorrow promising to be bright, but currently sinking fast in the West. The A's can no longer be satisfied to win series, or to tip their hat after losing to a team's ace. They need to win tonight, Kenny Rogers' magic at the Coliseum be damned, and then they need to win as many tomorrows as possible. The Angels, Indians, and Yankees have proven, once again, that somehow Math is actually an illusion and September is more than 1/6 of the season.
The Rangers, fresh off their best Black Sox imitation, send Rogers to the mound until what...74 pitches? Until it's turned over to who...not Brocail, not Cordero, maybe a chronically ineffective reliever, or a rookie with a double-digit ERA? Some things make you scratch your head; other things make you throw your TV. But now, it's time to forget about what you can't control because 10-0 will get you to the playoffs anyway. Time to win some baseball games down the stretch, starting tonight.
The starting lineups show Kendall batting third, which, as far as I'm concerned, automatically makes it a bad lineup. For whatever it's worth, Kendall is 8/19 lifetime against Kenny Rogers.
Matthews Jr.
Young
Teixeira
Blalock
Soriano
Mench
Gonzalez
DeRosa
Laird
Ellis
Kotsay
Kendall
Chavez
Payton
Crosby
Kielty
Hatteberg
Swisher
