The Oakland Athletics look to wrap up a split in their four game series with the Detroit Tigers. The A’s send out Trevor Cahill to face Brad Penny at 1:05pm pacific on CSN California. The A’s grabbed their first win of the series last night with a 6-2 victory behind Dallas Braden and a host of extra base hits. Today the A’s are a fairly sizable favorite behind Cahill.
The A’s are giving some of their starters the day off, including left fielder Josh Willingham and catcher Kurt Suzuki. Landon Powell is getting the start in place of Suzuki and Conor Jackson is starting in place of Willingham. What’s interesting is that Jackson has success against Brad Penny in limited appearances. Over 21 plate appearances, Jackson has a line of .474/.524/.684 with four doubles and three RBIs.
Nobody in today’s starting lineup has a home run in their career against Penny, but it’s worth noting that the A’s offense is not predicated on home run power. Rather, the A’s offense will find success when it is hitting balls into the gaps. This is a lineup built to hit a lot of singles and doubles instead of a more traditional power-packed lineup. They haven’t done a lot of that thus far, but Saturday’s win over Detroit was an excellent example of what this offense is capable of when things are working. We’ll see if they can carry that momentum over into today’s matchup.
Oakland Athletics
1. David DeJesus, CF
2. Daric Barton, 1B
3. Conor Jackson, RF
4. Josh Willingham, LF
5. Hideki Matsui, DH
6. Mark Ellis, 2B
7. Landon Powell, C
8. Andy LaRoche, 3B
9. Cliff Pennington, SS
Detroit Tigers
1. Will Rhymes, 2B
2. Austin Jackson, CF
3. Brennan Boesch, DH
4. Miguel Cabrera, 1B
5. Ryan Raburn, LF
6. Don Kelly, 3B
7. Jhonny Peralta, SS
8. Alex Avila, C
9. Casper Wells, RF