Two and a half games turned into three last night, and with another successful attempt at playing spoiler, the A's can knock the Angels back to four games out of the AL West pennant.
Of course, it'd definitely help if the A's could get another start like Guillermo Moscoso (8-8, 3.34 ERA) pulled out of his rabbit's hat last time out. He came an inning away from a no hitter, and in an eventual 8.2 innings of work, he struck out four, walked one, and allowed two measly singles. Opposing him for Los Angeles is former top prospect Jerome Williams (3-0, 3.51 ERA). Williams was a hotshot prospect in the Giants system, and Baseball America named him the 19th best overall prospect in 2001 and 2002. After being traded to the Cubs, he bounced around baseball, making appearances on the rosters of five more teams, including two stints for the Athletics and the Angels each. In fact, before this season, he hadn't pitched in a major league game since May 15, 2007.
Unfortunately for Oakland, he now holds a 15.1% swinging strike rate, which is absolutely insane. This might be a low scoring game, folks.
First pitch is at 7:05 PM.
LineupCF Weeks
SS Pennington
LF Matsui
DH Willingham
3B Sizemore
CF Sweeney
C Suzuki
1B Allen
RF Taylor