The A's and Chad Gaudin with a 9-9 record and a 4.25 ERA take on the Devil Rays and Jason Hammel with a 1-3 record and a 6.70 ERA.
Gaudin has had quite the fall from grace. At the same time, I'm not willing to say that he shouldn't be a starter just because what very well may have happened is that a guy who had gotten very used to being a reliever was adjusting to starting. His ERA month to month was 2.54, 2.15, 4.04, 6.44 and this August, it's risen to 7.23. Hopefully Gaudin can get a bit of the early season mojo back and get the A's back over the .500 mark for the first time since way before the All Star break.
The A's lineup looks like this:
Stewart
DaVanon
Swisher
Cust
Piazza
Ellis
Hannahan
Suzuki
Furmaniak
I'm not sure why the A's wouldn't have Scoot in the lineup since he's been on fire in August, but you might as well work to see what you have in the system and with some youngsters. Who knows, maybe he's hurt and I missed it. With the A's, you never know.
Any way, the Devil Rays send out the following lineup:
Iwamura
Crawford
Upton
Pena
Young
Harris
Norton
Navarro
Wilson
Hey, remember when Carlos Pena was supposed to be the A's new first baseman? Then he went to Detroit and eventually kind of disappeared. Well, he's back and has 28 home runs on the season and a .933 OPS all while playing the trademarked defense we knew he for in Oakland. I guess sometimes it takes a little longer for a guy to figure it all out or maybe to get into the right situation at the right time. Just ask Jack Cust.
LET'S GO A'S!!!!!!!
