The Oakland Athletics look to win their fourth straight game as they wrap up their two game set with the Boston Red Sox at 12:35pm pacific on Tuesday. The A’s send out Gio Gonzalez who will be looking to improve upon his MLB-leading 0.47 ERA against Clay Buchholz. The game will be televised on CSN California, which has been a bit of a rarity on midweek day games in the A’s recent past.
The A’s give Ryan Sweeney a rare start as Josh Willingham gets the day off. Sweeney has had some key hits for the team in limited action after a strong spring training campaign. Additionally, the team continues to get Kurt Suzuki more rest than last year as they start Landon Powell in the day game following a night game. Manager Bob Geren has been a bit more cautious in his team’s workload as he’s worked to get everybody a little more rest each week.
The Red Sox give David Ortiz the day off and get J.D. Drew back in the lineup against the lefty Gonzalez. Over the first three weeks of the season Gonzalez has been able to keep runs off the scoreboard but he’s had some issues with walks. He walked six last game and has 12 walks in three starts overall. If he’s going to maintain his strong start, he’ll need to cut down on the walks.
Oakland A’s Lineup
1. Coco Crisp CF
2. Daric Barton 1B
3. David DeJesus RF
4. Hideki Matsui DH
5. Ryan Sweeney LF
6. Mark Ellis 2B
7. Landon Powell C
8. Kevin Kouzmanoff 3B
9. Cliff Pennington SS
Red Sox Lineup
1. J.D. Drew RF
2. Dustin Pedroia 2B
3. Adrian Gonzalez 1B
4. Kevin Youkilis DH
5. Jed Lowrie 3B
6. Marco Scutaro SS
7. Carl Crawford LF
8. Jason Varitek C
9. Jacoby Ellsbury CF