Gooooooooood morning, Oakland!!! Yes, wipe the crusties from those eyes and get you some Starbucks (as opposed to your normal "adult" beverage) because we've got early morning baseball from Cleveland, Ohio.
The A's look to start a streak heading in the other direction today by sending Smokin' June Blanton to the mound. Blanton is sporting a 7-4 record and a 3.19 ERA. Blanton is 3-1 with a 1.14 ERA in June. He's opposed by Paul "Don't Call Me June" Byrd who is 6-3 with a 4.74 ERA. Byrd has actually been getting whacked around in June. He's got a 7.89 ERA in the month of the Summer Solstice. Although the last time out, he actually pitched pretty well against the Washington Nationals by only giving up three runs in 6 2/3 innings.
The A's send out this lineup to try and beat Mr. Byrd:
Stewart
Kotsay
Swisher
Cust
Chavez
Ellis
Johnson
Crosby
Kendall
OK, so I guess I can understand putting Kendall back out there since the game was rain delayed last night and Suzuki had a late night because of it. But can we make sure that Suzuki is behind the dish tomorrow night? Please? Kotsay is hitting second by the way and in case you're wondering why...well, Mark has 11 hits in 24 ABs against Byrd and an OPS of 1.327 against the former Angel. As a matter of fact, many of the A's sport an OPS of over .900 against Byrd.
The Indians try to cool off June Blanton with the following lineup:
Sizemore
Michaels
Martinez
Hafner
Peralta
Nixon
Shoppach
Barfield
Rouse
Old friend Mike Rouse makes an appearance as well as Kelly "Freaking" Shoppach. Course that means that Donnie Darko, I mean Ryan Garko, has to have a seat and Garko has three hits in three previous ABs against Blanton including a double and a home run.
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!! Make that latte taste extra good this morning.
