The A's and Los Kirk with a 6-6 record and a 4.66 ERA take on the Manny and Papi-less Red Sox and Josh Beckett with a 14-8 record and a 5.21 ERA.
The A's absolutely must take advantage of their good fortune in not facing the Red Sox real offense. The question is will Kirk be able to induce the still-remain patient Red Sox hitters to hit the ground balls. Or if they will try to walk him to death.
The A's lineup against Beckett looks like this:
Kendall
Kotsay
Bradley
Thomas
Chavez
Payton
Swisher
Scutaro
Ellis
The A's have all had limited ABs against Beckett, mostly consisting of this year's games. Bradley, Kendall, Payton, Ellis and Chavez have all done well in their few ABs.
The Red Sox counter with this lineup:
Crisp
Cora
Loretta
Youkilis
Hinske
Lowell
Pena
Mirabelli
Pedroia
The A's see what the Red Sox lineup might look like if they didn't have ridiculous sums of money to spend (although Ortiz was a Beanish steal). Although surprisingly, Ortiz has a .348 OPS against Los Kirk. That's OPS not OBP. Ramirez has almost as bad numbers against Saarloos. The players on the Red Sox who have hit Saarloos well in the past are still in there...Youkilis, Loretta and Alex Cora. So this might be the one night that the abscence of Ortiz and Ramirez might not be as much of a factor. But I'm still sure as hell glad they aren't in there.
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!!