The Oakland Athletics and Detroit Tigers square off on Friday night in the second of a four game series. Brandon McCarthy will face off against Rick Porcello as he battles an old AL Central nemesis in the Tigers. McCarthy began his major league career with the White Sox and had several chances to face the Tigers various AL Central alumni.
The Tigers don’t have a ton of plate appearances against McCarthy, but you’ve still got Jhonny Peralta (21 PAs), Victor Martinez (16), Brandon Inge (12), and Magglio Ordonez (11). Peralta has an awful line of .056/.143/.056, while the other three have had a decent amount of success in this moderate sample size.
The A’s offense has very limited experience against Rick Porcello. Given their overall struggles this season, odds are decent they struggle again tonight. They wasted a strong pitching performance from Gio Gonzalez last night, who lowered his ERA to 0.47. They’ll look to provide more support for a hopefully resurgent Brandon McCarthy. Through two starts McCarthy has been fairly solid, while receiving the most run support on the staff.
Oakland Athletics
1. Coco Crisp, CF
2. Daric Barton, 1B
3. David DeJesus, RF
4. Josh Willingham, LF
5. Hideki Matsui, DH
6. Mark Ellis, 2B
7. Kurt Suzuki, C
8. Andy LaRoche, 3B
9. Cliff Pennington, SS
Detroit Tigers
1. Will Rhymes, 2B
2. Ryan Raburn, LF
3. Brennan Boesch, RF
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Victor Martinez, DH
6. Don Kelly, CF
7. Brandon Inge, 3B
8. Alex Avila, C
9. Ramon Santiago, SS