The A's and Barry Zito with a 1-2 record and a 5.48 ERA take on the Rangers and Vicente "Back-to-Back-to-Back" Padilla with a 2-1 record and a 3.75 ERA.
Barry looks to build on Smokin' Joe's performance last night with a solid one once again in Arlington. Interestingly, the A's were also 9-11 through 20 games last season. The A's are batting only .187 over their last seven games as a team. Course, the two home runs the A's hit last night helped them total 27, which is the third best total in the AL. The bad news on that front? Of the 27 home runs this year, 19 of them have been solo shots and the Swisher grand slam on Saturday was the first home run with more than one man on base. That tells me that the percentages will have to even out and this offense has no where to go but up. Power may be the great equalizer as Billy Beane is so fond of saying, but if there is no one or only one man is on base, then it usually will equal very few runs scored.
The lineup looks as follows:
Kotsay
Swisher
Chavez
Thomas
Bradley
Crosby
Ellis
Kendall
Payton
The Wizard of Croz returns tonight and he's batting sixth, where most of AN has been calling for all season. Perhaps someone is listening?
The Rangers counter with this group:
Matthews
Young
Teixeira
Nevin
Blalock
Mench
Wilkerson
Barajas
Jimenez
Stay away from the Mench. Bubble head has four home runs in his last four games. Danger, Will Robinson, Danger.
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!!
