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The A's will look to avoid a second consecutive series loss against the Orioles in today's awkward 4 PM game.
The 58-56 Orioles aren't out of the playoff picture, but they're not far off. A combination of shaky pitching and the regression of some key starters (Steve Pearce and J.J. Hardy, I'm looking at you) has led to a pretty mediocre season despite massive campaigns from Adam Jones, Manny Machado (boo, hiss), and Chris Davis. It's still a dangerous team though, and those players are legitimately excellent. Machado might be a dark horse MVP candidate, with 5.5 fWAR to date.
Today's matchup is Miguel Gonzalez (9-8, 4.45) vs. Chris Bassitt (1-4, 2.48). If that seems familiar, that's because it's a rematch of August 4th's game. The A's actually won that game – Gonzalez went 5.1 with three earned runs, and Bassitt went 7 scoreless.
What hasn't been said about Chris Bassitt? The kid (he's 26, but like, still) is putting on an absolutely spectacular show lately, and is making a strong case that he's a long-term rotation candidate. Since the All-Star break, he's put up a 2.01 ERA, 9.11 K/9, 1.69 BB/9, 2.62 FIP, and a 2.86 xFIP. He's been good. He's been really good. For more on him, read one of the fifty articles we've put out on him in the past month – here, here, and here.
Valencia out of lineup with back and hamstring soreness. He's expected to be OK for tomorrow.
— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) August 15, 2015
Here are the lineups:
Baseball!
