Welcome to another fantastic season of baseball, starring your 2011 Oakland Athletics! The game tonight will be at 7:00 PM, and for those of you who are unable to make it live, we have provided a game thread just for you. Because you all deserve the very best, I thought we could open the game thread with a quote from Rob Neyer, who now lives on SB Nation's Baseball Nation. Rob was kind enough to write a summary on today's contest to open the game thread, just for us!
There won't be a great many A's-M's games this season which the Mariners are favored ... But this opener is one of them. That's what happens when Cy Young winner Felix Hernandez pitches at home (sic) against a lineup that, while bolstered by off-season additions, still doesn't remind anyone of the Bash Brothers. And it should be said, at least in passing, that regardless of his 2.97 ERA last season, Trevor Cahill might be the A's fourth-best starting pitcher.
Obviously, in the longer term the A's are the superior club, and should spend the season fighting for the division title while the M's fight to avoid losing 90 games. So while tonight's game might not be easy, almost every game the A's play in 2011 figures to be easier.
And there you have it. He's right, of course. Felix Hernandez and his Cy Young are about as tough a contest as the A's will have. Personally, from a ridiculously small sample size from Spring Training, I'd like to see Conor Jackson get an at-bat against Felix; he smoked two hits off him in the game I watched.
Trevor Cahill gets the nod as the ace tonight, becoming the A's sixth different Opening Day pitcher in six years. Also notable about those six games, according to MLB.com, is that the A's have lost every one. But that streak can't continue forever, and the luck can change tonight.
Lineups will be posted if I get the iPad working in the parking lot, or as soon as Nico takes pity on me. Nico and Cindi will be here to guide you through the rest of the game, and I'll be back to wrap up what we saw.
Enjoy it, everyone and...
LET'S GO, OAK-LAND! (clap clap clap clap clap)
