Game Thread #114: Oakland Athletics at Toronto Blue Jays

Good afternoon and welcome to another game of Oakland Athletics baseball, a better brand of baseball this week than we've seen in months past. Despite their glaring bullpen issues, the A's have managed to put up enough offense to go with their stellar starting pitching to win three games in a row, and will look to win their fourth tonight behind Kendall Graveman. The youngster will have no easy task; batting first, second and third for the surging Blue Jays will be Tulowitzki, Donaldson, and Bautista as the Jays continue to nip at the heels of the AL East-leading New York Yankees. The Blue Jays have won eight in a row themselves, and nine of their last ten games, and will send Drew Hutchison to the mound in a bid to continue to secure their playoff run.

The A's will try not to make any errors and Graveman will try to pitch carefully around Toronto's loaded lineup. Hot shot Danny Valencia, one of the few fun stories for the A's, will be manning the cleanup slot for the A's in lieu of the slumping Billy Butler against the right-hander, and Coco Crisp will slide back into second, behind Billy Burns.

Let's do this.

Here are your lineups:

LET'S GO OAK-LAND!