Having salvaged at least a single win on this Road Trip Of Horrors, the A's will try to split the series with the Blue Jays and make it a "bad" (2-4) trip instead of a lousy one (1-5).
Ben Sheets, Oakland's Opening Day starter, faces off against Shaun Marcum, Toronto's Opening Day starter. The main difference between the two pitchers? There are fewer ways to spell "Ben." Speaking of whom, Ben opened up the road trip for the A's and pitched like sheet. Hopefully, today's curves will land down at knees, more than over the left field wall.
One of yesterday's heroes, Josh Donaldson, is back in the starting lineup. Sore kneed Ryan Sweeney returns, while Cliff Pennington remains in the leadoff spot with Rajai Davis batting 9th. My only quibble is that Sweeney is too valuable to be playing on turf with sore knees, when the A's have just one more turf game to endure. What I would have preferred to see today is Sweeney at DH and Gabe Gross in RF. But whatevs!
