Well, folks, I know this doesn't come as a surprise given these two players' history, but Rich Harden and Milton Bradley were both placed on the DL today. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for Harden. He went through the entire spring healthy and seemed finally poised to take that next step towards greatness, but as the old saying goes, two steps forward, three back.
As for Bradley, I love the guy, but he has the same injury issues. The most optimistic A's fan in me can only see the bright light being that we get to see a couple of kids come up that we've heard about seemingly forever in Dallas Braden and Dann Putnam.
The A's go into Baltimore and start Danny Haren with a 1-2 record and a 1.44 ERA. He faces Erik Bedard, who is 3-1 with a 5.40 ERA. The Orioles would have to be considered an early season surprise so far, sitting just 1.5 games behind Boston going into action tonight.
Old friend Miguel Tejada must be loving it, but he doesn't love hitting against Haren. Brian Roberts has had decent success against Haren in the past, with a .912 OPS against Danny Boy. The A's, as a team, have a meager .489 OPS against Bedard.
And Putnam actually makes it into the A's lineup tonight, which you'd normally think would be insane given Klown Power against lefties, but Kielty hasn't hit Bedard well in the past. The A's lineup looks like this:
Stewart
Swisher
Chavez
Piazza
Crosby
Ellis
Walker
Kendall
Putnam
I would've probably liked Walker on the bench and Kielty in the outfield for this one, but I'm not the one making out the lineups (lucky for you guys).
The Orioles throw out this lineup:
Roberts
Mora
Markakis
Tejeda
Huff
Gibbons
Payton
Patterson
Bako
Let's remember that Jay Payton loves the first pitch fastball, people. Splitters or sliders on the first pitch only, please.
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!!
