The A's return home after a brutal road trip. OK, not that brutal, they didn't lose all of the games, they won two, but the scary thing was that a couple of pitchers who may have been pitching over their heads for a while seemed to come back down to earth. Kennedy and Blanton got roughed up a bit in Baltimore. It's a concern because the A's need at least one of them to continue to be effective. Kennedy had seemingly done it with a lot of smoke and mirrors judging from some of his stats.
Any way, one of the A's rocks of their rotation so far this year, Chad Gaudin with a 4-1 record and a 2.58 ERA take on the Rangers and Ron Washington. Wash makes his first appearance back in Oakland and I imagine he's going to hear nothing but loud and long cheering. Don't get me wrong, I love the choice of Geren and think Geren has been great this year, but I do miss having Wash down there at third base. And he isn't exactly having an easy go of it yet as a manager.
The Rangers send out Robinson Tejeda, who started a game against the A's on April 22 against Gaudin. Gaudin pitched six innings that day, only allowing one run to the Texas offense and Tejeda allowed three runs through 6 1/3. Gaudin got a no decision that day as the A's pen melted down and Huston Street allowed two runs in the bottom of the eighth on a hit by Hank Blalock.
Hopefully Gaudin gets some measure of revenge today. The starting lineups:
Lofton CF
Vazquez 3B
Young SS
Teixeira 1B
Catalanotto DH
Byrd LF
Kinsler 2B
Cruz RF
Stewart C
Stewart LF
Buck RF
Swisher CF
Johnson 1B
Chavez 3B
Crosby SS
Cust DH
Ellis 2B
Kendall C
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!
