Game Thread #18: A's at Rays

Happy 4/20, for those of you that celebrate it. Snoop Dogg (Lion) is playing at the Fillmore in San Francisco tonight, in what should be the ultimate 4/20 experience. I still can't bring myself to listen to one of his reggae tracks...but that's a conversation for another time.

You're here because you want to converse and make merry while the A's hopefully avenge yesterday's loss to the Rays. On the hill is Jarrod Parker, who, as Nico stated, has all eyes on him. It seems like the fourth start is the turning point; i.e. he'll either do well enough to warrant another start, or he will continue to pitch like he's legally blind and the A's will officially have a decision to make. He is pitted against notoriously slow Jeremy Hellickson, who is 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA in the young season (lifetime 5.40 ERA vs. the A's).

The Rays, outside of yesterday, have not been hitting particularly well. Their stars, Longoria and Zobrist, have done their typical damage but the rest of the lineup has been abysmal in the early going. Meanwhile, the A's have continued their torrid offensive start, piling up 11 hits but leaving a whopping 9 runners on base. The worst culprits are Chris Young and Josh Reddick, hitting .179 and .109, respectively. Hopefully the lineup role-reversal was just a temporary phenomenon. It helps that Young gets a day off today.

Aside from the whole 4/20 thing the Golden State Warriors are playing their first playoff game since 2007, in Denver, so many of the bloodshot eyes in the East Bay will be mildly following that matchup; feel free to make it a dual thread here and discuss both games.

Here are your lineups. Very happy we ended up with Jed Lowrie instead of Yunel Escobar as our SS.

Let's go Oak-Land!