This afternoon is the asphalt game of the 4-game series as Brad “Bad” Penny takes on Trevor Cahill. Then the Tigers skedaddle to Seattle.
Penny has a slight edge in the matchup, because Trevor Cahill is just not a very good baseball name. More golf, really. Watch for wild pitches; he has already had 3 this season, and at the Coliseum wild pitches have a lot of territory to roam.
Last night winning proved elusive (so no Charlie Sheen picture), and now we’re back to pursuing neither / nor. Also, for once, my predictions fell flat, spectacularly. Although whether or not this is actually indicative of anything remains to be seen (see my publication: “Incorrect predictions: variance, or flat-out wrongness?”).
While we contemplate that question, let me say a word about the famous situation where you have the baserunning man on 3rd base and the number of outs is not 2, no, not at all. The thing to do here is to hit the ball, somewhere, anywhere. Because the aforementioned baserunning man will possibly score, thus procuring your team a run. By no means should you engage in swinging and whiffing–this is highly discouraged.
Last night Jhonny Peralta struck out in this very scenario, which was so rare and shocking that he could not resist doing the very same thing the next time he was at the plate. Justin Verlander was so disturbed by this performance that he aimed a pickoff throw at the batter’s shoe (a normal baseball shoe; the A’s left their clown shoes in the locker room last night).
This afternoon, Jim Leyland, known as the consummate player’s manager, will expertly avoid such embarrassment by devising a lineup which is extremely unlikely to produce a runner at 3rd with less than 2 out.
Player of the Pre-game: Austin Jackson
Brad Penny pitched well in his last start, but that was at 51 degrees. With the warm afternoon Oakland weather, expect less break on the breaking balls, and a lot of long fly balls. Whether AJax hauls them down or not will make the difference in the game. And let’s see how he responds to not being the leadoff batter.
Today’s xR3L2O lineup:
- Will Rhymes 2B
- Austin Jackson CF
- Brennan Boesch DH
- Miguel Cabrera 1B
- Ryan Raburn LF
- Don Kelly 3B
- Johnny Peralta SS
- Alex Avila C
- Casper Wells RF
Im up for a good outing from Penny. Hopefully he can settle down and get us 6 or 7 quality innings with a W to show for it.
If Maggs and V-Mart can get going that would be cool too.
Have a great day everyone
Steve
I am glad to see Peralta a bit lower in the lineup. Last night batting right behind Martinez followed by Boesch was the best choice.
It looks like batting 2nd isn’t really helping AJax avoid the K
Since May 1, Austin Jackson hitting .275 with .329 oba and leading the world in strikeouts. He ain’t gonna figure it out. He’s a defensive luxury on a great team not the Tigers.
This is why I can’t stand Leyland; the whole no computer, playing hunches thing. Seriously, Jackson in the #2 slot? That’s idiotic.
Wow…this is the first game I have watched since opening day and I must say I am surpised at how impatient this team is at the plate. They are swinging at everything and anything. They have helped out Cahill on quite a few occasions in this game. This team is pressing big time offensively… It is just ugly…
Bah…wish Penny would have let that roll foul…
sigh
Leyland gets a lot of criticisms for his line-ups, and I agree he does strange things.
But, assuming that these 9 guys were going to be playing today, how would you arrange the line-up instead?
So….what are the odds of us losing this game 1-0? This offense just needs a good kick in the pants.
HIT THE BALL
wrong team
Wow….Penny has absolutely had a meltdown in this inning. And that’s that…We have no offense today and the bullpen certainly isn’t in any condition to keep the A’s off the board upon the exit of Penny, even if we were able to score….
The Ghost!!
Too many strikouts by Tiger batters and too many walks by Penny in the 5th I think it was. I hope the Tigers bats come back from vacation soon!
I hope they are on vacation and not retired.
One thing that’s pretty clear: we don’t have a lineup that can cover a Cabrera slump. He only had one hit in the series, and if he hadn’t had that one hit we would have only won 1 of 4 games.