Miguel Tejada and the Baltimore Orioles make their first trip to Oakland on this fine September day. How lame is that? But tonight is not the time to kvetch about "that dagburn schedule" and "them good ol' days when you saw the Orioles more than you saw them darn Giants." The A's have a division to try to secure, and a magic number to try to reduce by one more.
Tonight's pitching matchup features Joe Blanton (14-10, 4.45) against Erik Bedard (12-9, 3.92), the lefty who was once rumored to be part of Zito-related trade discussions with the A's. In June & July, Bedard had seven consecutive starts in which he picked up a win, but that has been followed by a current stretch of six starts during which time he is 0-3. Blanton, meanwhile, has turned in six "quality starts" in a row.
The starting lineups, sans a certain Eric Chavez:
Newhan
Mora
Markakis
Tejada
Gibbons
Millar
Gomez
Fiorentino
Ardoin
Kendall
Kielty
Bradley
Thomas
Payton
Swisher
Ellis
Scutaro
Perez
