The A's and King Richard who went 4-0 with a 4.24 ERA in 2006 take on the Tigers and Kenny Rogers who went 17-8 with a 3.84 ERA.
Remember that the A's won all nine starts that Rich Harden started this year and it should make you feel warm and fuzzy inside, especially when game time temperatures could creep down into the 40s. Something that will bring the chill back very quickly is the fact that Rogers has owned the A's for years.
The A's lineup looks like this:
Kendall
Kotsay
Bradley
Thomas
Payton
Chavez
Swisher
Scutaro
Jimenez
I'll repeat this once more, I honestly believe that Kielty needs to be in there against a lefty. I respect that Kotsay is a veteran and had an amazing game (hell, I'm wearing his player tee right now as is my daughter), but we NEED this game. You lose this one and we probably won't see our boys in Oakland again until April.
The Tigers send out this lineup:
Granderson
Monroe
Polanco
Ordonez
Guillen
Rodriguez
Infante
Inge
Santiago
The Tigers have hit Harden well in the past...to the tune of a .364 average and a team .985 OPS. Hopefully the cold will help with that. I'm pretty sure that people won't exactly want to make good contact with a 96 mph heater.
If Harden has his good splitter and change up working today, he should be fine. If not, the Tigers lineup should be able to hit the fastball.
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!!
