Game Thread #50: A's at Blue Jays

Oakland wraps up its road trip with the finale at Rogers Centre at 10:07am before crossing the continent in time for Monday's Memorial Day game at 1:05 pm. Drew Pomeranz makes his fourth start for the Athletics. With fifteen consecutive scoreless innings as a starter now, the left-hander hopes to go beyond the five innings that have marked his previous starts.

The Toronto Blue Jays will oppose the A's lineup with left-hander J.A. Happ, who enters today's contest 3-1 with a 4.37 ERA in four starts and seven appearances overall. Last Tuesday, Happ picked up a victory despite allowing four earned runs in five innings to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park.

Today is Jose Bautista/Edwin Encarnacion jersey giveaway day for the first 20,000 fans at Rogers Centre. It should be a busy day with the roof open once again as the A's try to win one out of three north of the border.

@bluejaysbatboy People reaaalllly love free stuff. pic.twitter.com/Bh6kUVFdHB

— Jayfan34 (@Jayfan34) May 25, 2014

• Righty-heavy: Brandon Moss is the only left-hander in the lineup for the Athletics against Happ.
• Short Bench: No update on John Jaso, who was last reported as being held out until Monday. Nick Punto is improved, but Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Bob Melvin will be trying to stay away from Punto. It's otherwise just two left handers, Josh Reddick and Eric Sogard.
• Outfield: Coco Crisp gets the half-day off from the turf at designated hitter today. With Reddick out against the lefty Happ, Craig Gentry is in center and Brandon Moss is in right field.
• Infield: Kyle Blanks gets his second start against left-handed pitching for the Athletics. Against Tampa Bay's Erik Bedard, Blanks went 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, once looking. Jed Lowrie returns to shortstop after his day off yesterday, and Alberto Callaspo mans second base. American League WAR leader Josh Donaldson mans the hot corner.

A player on a streak has to respect the streak

• Josh Donaldson continued his regular season road on-base streak in the nick of time yesterday with a ninth-inning walk. He now rides a 29-game road on-base streak, the longest since Mark McGwire had a 55-game streak between 1995 and 1996.
• Drew Pomeranz's 15-inning scoreless streak is the second longest active streak in the American League. With a fourth consecutive scoreless outing of at least five innings, Pomeranz would join Steve Ontiveros and Cory Lidle as the only Oakland pitchers that have done so.
• On the flip-side, Pomeranz has made 19 consecutive starts of five-innings or fewer going back to August 1, 2012. This is the longest such streak since at least 1914.
• The A's continue their streak of not using a rookie to start the year, and are the only team in MLB not to use a rookie this season. It is the A's longest period of not using a rookie since a 73-game start in 1984.

Streak information courtesy Oakland Athletics game notes for today's game.

The dome will be OPEN for the @BlueJays vs the Oakland @Athletics at 1:07PM at the Rogers Centre #RoofStatus

— Is the Dome Open? (@IstheDomeOpen) May 25, 2014