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Welcome to A's baseball, and I hope you're doing okay after yesterday's mess.
Yesterday was probably the first game this season where the A's got firmly, unequivocally beaten. There was no 9th inning blown save or a Felix Hernandez to blame, but just a feckless offense and a subpar pitching and defensive performance. A few games like that happen every year, but let's try to... not do that.
Today Scott Kazmir will be going against Brett Oberholtzer (0-3, 3.04 ERA), in a rematch of the game last Saturday. Oberholtzer pitched well enough, limiting the A's to 1 run over 5.2 innings. However, the results probably cover up a subpar performance overall: walked 2, allowed 8 hits, and only struck out 3. The A's just couldn't put together any situational hitting. That said, he's been really solid for the Astros so far -- 3.04 ERA and a 2.94 FIP. Hopefully the A's will ruin that tonight.
Scott Kazmir (2-0, 1.65 ERA), on the other hand, pitched incredibly well. 8 IP, 0 BB, 5 K, 6 H, 2 ER. He'll look to repeat that line tonight, and keep his fantastic opening to the season going.
Welcome to the game, and let's... not do what we did the last 3 days.
