The A's and Joe Blanton with his 10-8 record and 3.94 ERA take on the Toronto Blue Jays and Frank Thomas. Well, Thomas isn't pitching, but he's probably the most interesting thing about this matchup. The Jays send Shaun "Halladay" Marcum to the mound with his 10-4 record and 3.31 ERA. Marcum is proving to be a stud when the Jays have needed one. Not only that, but he shares a birthday with both myself and Scott Hatteberg (December 14) so he can't be all bad.
Seriously though, Marcum started the season 4-3 with a 3.62 ERA and has a 6-1 record with a 2.76 ERA since the All Star break. Even worse for the A's offense, Marcum is actually 3-0 with a 1.37 ERA over his last three starts. He's getting better and better. Hopefully the A's get to him early or it could be a long night of no support for Big Joe.
The A's lineup looks like this:
Stewart
Swisher
Cust
Piazza
Ellis
DaVanon
Scutaro
Hannahan
Suzuki
It's funny how much I used to dislike DaVanon when he wore Angel red. He always seemed to somehow hurt the A's. But frankly, the past is the past and I'm willing to let it all go as long as DaVanon comes through for the A's and helps the most injured A's team of all time reach .500.
The Jays lineup looks like this:
Johnson
Overbay
Rios
Wells
Thomas
Glaus
Adams
Thigpen
McDonald
If Blanton has anything going for him tonight it's that he seems to be better against righties (although not by a huge margin) and many of the Jays biggest hitters are righties. Blanton also has a complete game four-hitter, one run game against the Jays on July 3 earlier this year. And Big Joe did seem to get his confidence back for the first time out in a long time his last time out. Of course it was against the White Sox inept offense.
By the way, in case you haven't heard, Buck went on the DL today. The A's are on the cusp of tying the Oakland record for number of times the DL has been used. If you're going to come this close, you might as well break it. So maybe we can get Calero to get a hangnail or something?
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!!
