The Achin' A's can make it a winning road trip through two cities that have recently been chambers of horrors, if they can win either today or tomorrow. Today, the pitching matchup favors the Yankees, with Mike Mussina going against Kirk Saarloos. Compounding matters, Saarloos, not known for getting deep into games, gets the call on a day where Kiko Calero and Huston Street have each worked two days in a row. Steve Karsay could be a factor, which is why we hope Jay Witasick is a factor. It's a lesser of two evils kinda thang.
Mussina is 8-1, 2.67 ERA, and is probably the leading candidate for the Cy Young award as of June 10th. He has yet to walk more than two batters in a start, and he has yet to go less than six innings. However, today he faces a personal nemesis in Frank Thomas: The Big Hurt is 25-for-79 (.387) ,with 8 HRs, 9 doubles, 19 RBIs and a .471 OBP lifetime against Mussina. Saarloos' personal demon might be Robinson Cano, who is 4/5 against Saarloos.
Meanwhile, Ken Macha pieces another lineup together with Elmer's glue and Erstad's grit. Here's today's extravaganza, and remarkably it doesn't look half bad:
Kotsay
Swisher
Chavez
Thomas
Bradley
Johnson
Melhuse
Scutaro
Rouse
Damon
Jeter
Giambi
Rodriguez
Posada
Cano
Cabrera
Thompson
Cairo
