I'm scheduling this game thread to open at midnight, for those of you who are staying up all night. I am not one of them; I'll be back at 3AM to watch the game live. It's already been said how unbelievably awful it is that the A's are not being shown in Oakland live. If you live outside of the Bay Area, and you have the Direct TV baseball package, the game should be on the Seattle feed. But it is being broadcast on the radio, so you can sit back, and pretend it's 1940.
Brandon McCarthy will have the honor of opening the 2012 baseball season by throwing the first pitch; obviously he will be pitted against Seattle's Felix Hernandez (yet, some more). Not to depress you all in the middle of the night, but the A's have lost 7 consecutive Opening Day starts, including three most recently to Seattle, and one in Japan before in 2008. (The only two current players who were there were Kurt Suzuki for the A's, and Coco Crisp for the Red Sox. I also did the game thread, but I'm sure no one remembers that except Huston Street.)
According to the MLB summary, Seattle now has Ichiro Suzuki batting third instead of leadoff, and a new catcher, in Jesus Montero.
The A's have added...well, obviously a lot. The lineups are not yet out, but we have heard from Bob Melvin that Brandon Allen will be at first base, coincidentally after Kila butchered two balls there earlier this week. He will likely be joined by Suzuki, Weeks, Pennington, Smith, Cespedes, Reddick, Crisp, and either Sogard or Donaldson.
Brandon McCarthy is looking to pick up where he left off last year; and he will need to be at the top of his game to defeat Felix Hernandez. The A's offense should look to score early, and make something happen on the basepaths. Once Felix gets into a rhythm, it could be a short night.
And we have lineups! And we have Sogard!
For the first time, let's go Oak-land!
