Spring Game Thread #10: A’s vs. Brewers

The Oakland A’s host the Milwaukee Brewers in Cactus League action on Wednesday, and there are a lot of fun names on both sides of the lineup card.

For the A’s, today marks the return of their MLB starting rotation. Chris Bassitt gets the call, with a couple more big names following the rest of this week. Between this nod, and last season’s eighth-place finish in Cy Young voting, Bassitt would seem to be front-runner for the Opening Day start, though there haven’t been any official announcements on that topic.

The Brewers counter with none other than Brett Anderson, who is somehow still only 33 years old. I think we’re all at least mildly surprised that he didn’t end up in Oakland this spring, but he re-signed with the Crew after a successful 2020 that looked basically identical to his 2018-19 here.

In addition to Anderson, Milwaukee also leads off their order with Billy McKinney, a former A’s 1st-round draft pick. Oakland selected him out of high school in 2013, and then traded him away in Sharknado 1 in 2014, and since then he’s been traded twice more and waived. The outfielder has played 124 games in the majors spread over three seasons, mostly for the Blue Jays.

First pitch is (was) 12:05 p.m. PT. You can listen to the radio broadcast for free online at A’s Cast.

A’s lineup (home)

1. DH Matt Chapman (R)
2. CF Ramon Laureano (R)
3. 1B Mitch Moreland (L)
4. 3B Chad Pinder (R)
5. RF Stephen Piscotty (R)
6. 2B Tony Kemp (L)
7. SS Vimael Machin (L)
8. LF Skye Bolt (S)
9. C Austin Allen (L)

• LHP Chris Bassitt

Kemp, Machin, and Bolt, oh my!

Brewers lineup (away)

1. LF Billy McKinney (L)
2. 1B Keston Hiura (R)
3. 3B Travis Shaw (L)
4. CF Tyrone Taylor (R)
5. RF Jace Peterson (L)
6. C Luke Maile (R)
7. DH Dylan Cozens (L)
8. 2B Pablo Reyes (R)
9. SS Brice Turang (L)

• LHP Brett Anderson

Let’s go Oakland!