Game Thread #45: A’s at Blue Jays

Good afternoon and Happy Friday to all! baseballgirl is taking a three-game Friday night win streak into tonight, looking for number four in a row. Fridays have made a resurgence into this month of May, so here’s to hoping the A’s can keep it rolling, despite LITERALLY scraping starting pitchers together from other A’s eras. I mean, at this point, what are Hudson, Mulder and Zito doing these days?

As no doubt was noted yesterday, the country of Canada has kept Bruce Maxwell out for the weekend, so Josh Phegley is on the roster instead.

The A’s are down another pitcher as Triggs left the game early yesterday and was placed on the DL this morning.

Citing “fresh arms needed” rather than “you’ve been terrible”, Ryan Dull was sent to Triple-A today. Josh Lucas and Emilio Pagan have been called up.

Matt Chapman is taking a planned day off today; his first day off, according to Susan Slusser.

YET...despite it all; the injuries, the lack of starting pitching (not just good starting pitching, but actual bodies to pitch games), the impossible May schedule as the A’s rolled through Houston, New York, and Boston so far, the A’s are a .500 ballclub, clocking in at 22-22 for tonight’s game. Interestingly enough (so much so that I thought it was a coding error), the Blue Jays are also 22-22, so one team gets to go over .500 tonight. And since Brett Anderson is on the mound, it might be a kind observation to hope that the offense can repeat its 10-run drubbing from last night. MLB.com tells me that the Blue Jays starting pitcher, Marco Estrada, is prone to the long ball, and what a coicidence!, the A’s like the long ball.

Here are your starting lineups. Here’s hoping for lots and lots of runs.

LET’S GO OAK-LAND!