Game Thread #73: A’s at Padres

On the surface, the A’s have every reason to dominate the Padres for the next two games:

1. The Padres are not an AL West team.
2. The A’s are playing on the road.
3. The Padres are not good.

On a deeper level, Paul Blackburn is a total question mark. The A’s will send him to the mound with one stellar and one abysmal performance under his belt this season, so there’s no telling what will happen.

However, Padres rookie starter Eric Lauer averages well under 6 innings per start (45 total innings in 10 starts, has only reached 6.0 innings twice), so that bodes well. One thing to note is that he does have an impressive pickoff move, with 7 pickoffs already this year, so don’t expect a ton of steal attempts.

Jed Lowrie will start at third base with Matt Chapman on the DL.

First pitch is at 7:10!