Alright, folks, time to roll back the stone from the tomb and see what condition the corpse of HRDN is in.
He-who-shall-not-be-named is matched up against Sir Sidney Pontoon, the Royal Flotation Device of Aruba, who has put up impressive results so far in a 3-start comeback with the Rangers.
Pontoon's been sporadically in and out of MLB for so long, that hardly any current Athletics have even faced him. (Of course, the same can be said vis a vis Harden, the DL, and the Rangers.) The only two who have significant ABs against him are:
- Mike Sweeney, 17/36 with 2 2Bs and 4 HRs
- Frank Thomas, 9/24 with 1 2B and 4 HRs
While Frank has generated a fair number of walks (7) against Pontoon, Mike has not (2). Expect Mike to be hacking early and often at Pontoon's meatballs. And this could be a great opportunity for Frank to get some hittable pitches to continue his progress from last night. Definitely a good idea to have both Frank and Mike in the lineup together, and to have Mike in the #2 slot.
