Joe Blanton and Miguel Batista have, so far, had forgettable seasons for their respective teams. While we're all too familiar with Blanton's struggles, seeing him wallow to a 5-11 record and 4.76 ERA (with opposing batters hitting at a .280 clip), Batista has posted a 4-10 mark, a sky-high 6.27 ERA, and opposing batters are clocking in at .299. If he had enough innings to qualify, he'd have the worst ERA in the league for any starting pitcher.
But if the first two games of this series are any indication, it won't take 4.76 runs or 6.27 runs to win tonight's game. Yesterday, Duchscherer shut down the Mariners' bats, shutting them out and allowing only two hits. The previous day, Dana Eveland bounced back from an early 3-0 deficit to see the A's win 4-3. With such an anemic showing thus far, both team's offenses have to hope the heat wave will extend to their hitting, or help turn long flyball outs into home runs. The A's makeshift batting order doesn't look like a big enough threat to pull it off, but Batista did give up three bombs to the Mets in 2 2/3 innings (as well as 8 runs) on June 25th. I hope Oakland memorized that game tape.
