Tigers Series Wrap-up and Yankees Preview

Earlier today the A’s saved face and avoided the sweep against the Tigers, putting up late insurance runs to seal the deal as the team gets ready to head to NY for a big three game series against the Yankees. 

The first two games against the Tigers were an unmitigated disaster and that may be understating it.  Game 1 was an embarrassment with the A’s losing 12-2.  The only time it felt even remotely good was in the top of the 1^st when the A’s had a 1-0 lead.  That lead was quickly given up in the bottom half of the inning and the deficit grew in just about every inning thereafter, with the Tigers scoring in six of the eight innings they came to the plate.  Despite the score being closer, game 2 was actually worse.  The A’s have lost Brett Anderson to an oblique injury and Melvin is saying he may or may not be available for the postseason.  So that’s awesome. 

In the 3rd inning of yesterday’s game, Anderson looked awful fielding a bunt and then fell to the ground on a subsequent pitch.  He exited stage left immediately thereafter and the hopes of beating Verlander quickly fell apart.  To be honest, yesterday’s lineup card against Verlander was a bit more than puzzling and looked like we were throwing in the towel early and waiting for today’s game.  Coco remains out with conjunctivitis (pink eye) and Weeks still couldn’t find his way into the lineup.  To make matters worse, Barton returned to the starting lineup in place of Carter because Melvin wanted left handed batters in the lineup.  Hopefully, that is the last time we see that experiment, even though Barton did have a nice game at the plate. 

After today’s victory, there was a little rookie hazing in the locker room apparently:

Casey Pratt ‏@CaseyPrattCSN

The #Athletics rookies are wearing green collegiate wrestler uniforms complete with ear guards. Lookin like Rick Steiner.

Thankfully, the pictures online have been limited.  The A’s are off to NY to play the Yankees and here are the pitching matchups:

Friday, 7pm (US EST) – Parker (11-8) vs. Sabathia (13-6)

Saturday, 1pm – Blackley (5-3) vs. Nova (12-7)

Sunday, 1pm – Griffin (6-1) vs. Kuroda (14-10)

Hopefully, the A’s can take two out of three here in NY.  The teams have had two series thus far this season, with the A’s suffering a three game sweep at home in late May, but returned the favor in July by sweeping the Yankees in a four game series in Oakland.  If the A’s can pull off two victories, they’ll own the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Yankees.  I’ll go out on a limb and say that the A’s will do this, with victories tomorrow from Parker and Sunday from Griffin.  It will be interesting to see how Griffin responds coming off of his first loss of the season.  If this picture means anything, I think we are OK.

Tomorrow’s game will include a game day diary with the distinct pleasure of having to listen to the Yankees announcers for 3-4 hours.  If you don’t already, you’ll completely understand after reading the diary. 

Below you’ll see the up to the minute standings, before tonight’s games take place.  The A’s are currently tied with Baltimore for the top wild card spot and 3.5 games behind Texas for the division. 

Let’s go Oakland!