The A's and Joe Blanton with his 5-3 record and 3.81 ERA take on the Boston Red Sox and Curt "The Mouth" Schilling and his 5-2 record and 3.91 ERA. The A's are trying to break out the brooms and sweep the Red Sox.
I mentioned this in the thread last night, but I'm honestly surprised with the A's. I really thought that the A's would at best split the series. But they've stepped up and controlled some of the Red Sox best hitters and shown that their pitching is even better than we thought. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop with the pitchers on the staff not named Haren and Gaudin (and even then, I didn't think Gaudin was this good). Yet it's nearly 60 games in and that shoe remains firmly on the foot.
The A's send out this lineup to take on Schilling:
Stewart
Ellis
Swisher
Chavez
Cust
Johnson
Scutaro
Kotsay
Kendall
I love the fact that Geren continues to tinker with the lineup, moving the suddenly struggling DJ down and the hotter Ellis remains in the second slot. Perhaps DJ regains his stroke a bit without having the additional pressure of hitting third. It'd also be nice if Cust was starting to regain some of his magic as the league had obviously made an adjustment to him.
The Red Sox try and salvage a game with this lineup:
Lugo
Youkilis
Ortiz
Ramirez
Drew
Lowell
Varitek
Cora
Crisp
I think that the key for Blanton this year has been when he has his curve working and he's throwing it for strikes, he's incredibly effective. When he's missing or hanging his curve, he becomes very hittable. Let's hope that he has it working well today and the A's sweep the Red Sox away.
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!!!
