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Welcome all to another game of A’s baseball! I’m bta47, and I’ll be game threading on Thursdays this season. Our Athletics (10-4) will be looking for the delicious road sweep against the Los Angeles Angels (6-8).
The A’s are so hot right now. They’ve won four in a row, eight out of their last ten, and the past nine games not started by Felix Hernandez. They lead the league in run differential, have the second best record in the MLB, and the second lowest ERA and WHIP. They’re trying to finish off the nine game road trip having only dropped one game. In short, it’s a really good time to be an A’s fan, and Felix Hernandez is the devil.
We’ll be going against Tyler Skaggs (1-0, 2.40 ERA), a former top prospect who has disappointed in his first two years in the MLB. He’s basically the Angels version of Drew Pomeranz — he was the #12 prospect in the MLB going into 2012, has a high draft pedigree, and has great lefthanded stuff, but hasn't quite put it together at the Major League level. He was acquired in the Mark Trumbo trade this offseason, and he’s been impressive thus far: over 15 innings, he’s allowed four earned runs, struck out nine, and only walked one.
We’ll be throwing Tommy Milone (0-1, 5.40 ERA) tonight. He actually had a good start last time around, guys. Jed Lowrie will be DHing tonight, so at least Pasta Diving Lowrie won't kill him this time around.
The A’s will need Milone to go deep today, as the only pitchers in the bullpen who didn’t pitch yesterday were Fernando Abad and Luke Gregerson. Luckily tomorrow’s an off-day, but it is a bit of a tenuous situation right now.
There's a bit of a bizarre lineup tonight, resulting from Coco Crisp being out and Josh Reddick/Daric Barton both hitting below the double-secret Mendoza line. Apparently bad enough to start Eric Sogard versus a lefty, which will be... fun?
Here are your lineups:
