The A's begin their post-All Star break in another one of their houses of horror, Fenway Park. And they do it with their, um, not Ace Esteban Loaiza with his 3-5 record and 6.43 ERA. Interestingly enough, Loaiza started the only game the A's won in their four-game series against the Angels.
The A's face rookie Jon Lester with a 4-0 record and a 3.06 ERA. We all know how well they faired the last time they faced an impressive rookie when they took on Jered Weaver.
Something about the A's lineup tonight makes me wince. No Eric Chavez and no Milton Bradley.
Here is how it looks:
Kendall
Swisher
Kielty
Thomas
Payton
Crosby
Kotsay
Ellis
Perez
The A's might just be using the fact that Lester can be a tough lefty to give Chavez an extra day off. Or this could signal an impending trip to the DL that many speculated might be coming. Guess we'll have to wait to hear. At least Perez is going to get some ABs to start off the second half. I feel like he was grossly misused during the first half of the season and we'll see if that changes at all. Lester will only get one lefty in Kotsay in tonight's lineup. We'll see how it goes.
The mighty Red Sox offense looks like this:
Youkilis
Loretta
Ortiz
Ramirez
Nixon
Varitek
Lowell
Crisp
Gonzalez
All the hullabaloo about Manny Ramirez was for nothing because there he is in the lineup as many predicted. The second half starts tonight. Will a trip into Boston help the A's? We shall see, but for now it looks doubtful. Here's my advice...do NOT pitch to Ortiz in a game-deciding situation.
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!!
