Elephant Rumblings: Mason Miller to start today against Houston

Happy Monday, Athletics Nation!

The A’s failed to play the spoiler against the Rangers over the weekend. Oakland got off to a strong start to the series with a 6-3 win on Friday, and game two was well within reach on Saturday, but it slipped away and the A’s lost it 3-2. Then Texas won handily by a 9-4 score yesterday to hang onto their down-but-not-out positions in the AL West and Wild Card standings.

One potential silver lining to this is that the A’s are visiting a team this week whose playoff hopes we’d all love to see dashed: the Houston Astros. If the A’s can take this series, the net effect would be preferable to winning in Arlington and losing in Houston. I never want the A’s to lose, but I’d much rather see the Rangers or Mariners take the division than watch the cheating Astros do it again en route to yet another deep playoff run.

The A’s will be trotting out their best stuff for today’s series opener: Mason Miller will make his first start with the A’s since going on the IL with a mild UCL strain in May.

Martin Gallegos at MLB.com doesn’t specify in his tweet what Miller’s pitch limit might be, but I’d not count on much more than three innings or 50 pitches. Miller came out of the bullpen last week and was positively brilliant through two perfect innings.

If Miller can expand on what he did last week, we should all be very happy...although his pitch limit means that we’ll ultimately need our bullpen’s best to beat the Astros, whose scheduled starter Framber Valdez threw a no-hitter last month.

So prepare to gird thyselves, AN.

A’s Coverage:

• Willis: Athletics drop finale to Rangers 9-4
• Smith: A’s continue to lead the major leagues in at least one category: bad publicity
• Burke: Former Atlanta Braves Pitcher Earning Spot with A’s

MLB News & Interest:

• Deeds: Jasson Dominguez Suffers Torn UCL
• Deeds: The New Fernando Tatis Jr.
• Deeds: Angels Activate Ben Joyce, Zach Neto
• Polishuk: AL East Notes: Means, Adam, Margot, Baz, Bowman, Misiewicz
• Polishuk: Reds Activate Joey Votto, Jonathan India, Hunter Greene
• Polishuk: Red Sox Place James Paxton On 15-Day Injured List
• Polishuk: NL West Notes: Betts, Marte, Stripling, Lee
• Mooney: Why Jon Lester reached out about Justin Steele before he became the Cubs’ new ace ($)
• Today in Baseball History

Best of X:

Bip bullish on Gelof.

Ports finish on a high note.