The A's and Chad Gaudin with an 8-5 record and a 3.39 ERA take on Bartolo "Shrek" Colon and the Anaheim Angels. Colon has a 6-5 record and a 6.38 ERA. So that obviously means he's going to shut out the A's tonight as that's seemingly been the trend this year. Any pitcher who has a bloated ERA always seems to find his game against our offense.
The A's activated Huston Street today and he'll initially be a part of the middle relief. Hopefully he has the nerve to get back in and close soon (I think I've been reading Nico too much lately ;-) They also decided that in their roster crunch to designated Bobby Kielty for assignment. I hate to say this, but I honestly think I had an emotional attachment to Kielty for his hairy ANtics (shout out to my man Louis) and that bomb off Francisco Rodriguez a year or two back. He had some great moments with the team, but unfortunately he's basically a one-trick pony and that's hitting left-handed pitching. The A's are hitching their wagon to Cust-mobile full speed ahead.
Any way, here is the A's lineup tonight:
Stewart
Swisher
Cust
Piazza
Johnson
Ellis
Scutaro
Crosby
Suzuki
Chavez must've been having back issues again. Still, I actually do kind of like this lineup. Hopefully they like me more than they me yesterday.
The Angels lineup looks like this:
Figgins
Cabrera
Guerrero
Anderson
Matthews
Kotchman
Izturis
Napoli
Willits
The Angels have their own injury issues right now, albeit nothing in comparison to what the A's have had to deal with this year, but Kendrick is a major cog in that offense and he's no where to be found.
We'll see if Gaudin throws some consistent strikes tonight. He has a 6.11 ERA in July and 15 walks to only nine strikeouts. There's no secret as to why he's gone from 2.54 ERA in April to 2.15 ERA in May to 4.04 ERA in June to 6.11 ERA in July. As his walkout to strike ratio has gotten worse, his ERA has gone North. Hopefully he can right that trend tonight. The A's may be fading, but I still want to beat that team from the OC badly.
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!!
