Everyone's favorite spoiler is in town. Welcome in the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, who always seem to be good enough to give the Yankees fits, good enough to scare you, but not actually good enough to win half their games. This is a team that is long on young talent, but which gets only great half-seasons out of guys like Jonny Gomes and Ty Wiggington, and which still calls Casey Fossum a #3 starter. Not a good team, but definitely a dangerous team you don't want to catch at the wrong time.
The A's send Chad Gaudin to the mound tonight against James Shields. If you see Shields drooling, it's probably the notion of facing an A's lineup that is last in the league in hitting and one which accurately reflects the fact that Oakland is located roughly between Sacramento and Stockton. Strangely, every time I see someone drooling, I have this sudden urge to ring a bell. Not sure what that's about.
Tonight's starting lineups:
Dukes CF
Harris SS
Crawford LF
Wiggington 3B
Young RF
Peña 1B
Navarro C
Gomes DH
Upton 2B
Stewart LF
Ellis 2B
Chavez 3B
Piazza DH
Johnson 1B
Crosby SS
Buck RF
Kendall C
Putnam CF
