Game Thread #2: A's vs. White Sox

Good evening A's fans! After a tough one run loss with some positives to hang your hat on, the A's are back at it again with attempt number two at win number one. For the Sox, Jose Quintana is on the bump. The lefty has quietly been one of the better pitchers in baseball for a three year stretch. Opposing Quintana is Athletics tall guy Chris Bassitt, who has not so quietly been a baseball crush of mine since his mid-summer emergence.

Some things to watch tonight:

-Can the A's newbie hitters do something resembling hitting?

For the sake of this bullet point, I'm pretending Lowrie is and oldie and not a newbie. Last night, new Oakland hitters Khris Davis, Chris Coghlan, and Yonder Alonso went 0-6 with four strikeouts. Not an ideal debut, but it's one game. I think we're all excited to see these guys perform, and hopefully they actually do so tonight.

-Can the A's defense not be terrible?

It wouldn't take much to make the case last nights loss falls on the inaccurate arms of the collective defense. "It's early" can quickly become a tired excuse for unwatchable play, but it's early. Is this the way the team is, or can the A's find better defensive form?

-Which Chris Bassitt will we get?

It's no secret I love to watch Chris Bassitt, but sometimes he can be a struggle. His command can be erratic but his stuff can be dominant. Bassitt has a new and improved windup that's quicker, and hopefully that will lead to better command and more time for us to watch good Bassitt.

Lineups!

First pitch is at 7:05pm local time. Suggested topic for tonight's thread: some (all?) of us are being subjected to Hawk's call on the Sox broadcast. Do you listen to Hawk? If not, what do you listen to instead?

Go A's!