Game Thread #38: A's at Rays

For the sake of self-preservation and my own dignity, there will be very little editorial comments in this pre-game. I certainly want to avoid that moment in the season where you say things like, "Yeah, we were defeated in a two-hit shut out yesterday, but hey...it wasn't a no-hitter. We broke that up."

I certainly don't want to get on the boys. My guess is they're hammering themselves enough. Or at least I want to believe that. If I was going to get on the boys, though, I'd start with Kendall Graveman's annoying Bull Durham quote: "Miller did a good job going down and hitting the home run...good piece of hitting. You try to take away some positives from the night...hats off to the guy on the other side" (mlb.athletics.com).

I'm going to stick with the architecture of today's game so here you go:

It's a rubber match: Sonny Gray versus Matt Moore. Gray is 2-1 with a 2.81 ERA in his five career starts against the Rays. Overall ERA of 12.79 this season. Matt Moore is 1-3 with a 4.83 ERA this season and can't seem to last through five innings in his last two starts. And it's now out of the closet: Ryan Madson is our "official" closer per Bob Melvin yesterday.

Today's starting lineup is as follows:

The A's travel back home later tonight to face the Rangers tomorrow at the Coliseum. For those who haven't heard it yet, traffic advisory announced so plan accordingly. Note: It is not a Rapid Deal game tomorrow night, but there is one for the A's / Rangers on Monday, June 13^th: 5 bucks!

That's it for now; see you in the post game.