The Oakland Athletics face the Texas Rangers Tuesday night in Arlington looking to improve to a season-high three games over .500. The A’s improved to a season-high two games over .500 Monday night as they defeated the Rangers 7-2, powered by Josh Willingham’s five RBIs.
The A’s will get Hideki Matsui back into the lineup after he sat out a pair of games against left-handed pitchers. He will DH tonight and hit in the fifth spot. Coco Crisp gets the night off as the A’s will start Ryan Sweeney in center. Sweeney gets a boost into the third spot in the batting order, while David DeJesus will hit leadoff. In limited play Sweeney has been on fire, hitting .350 on the season and .615 over his last week’s worth of at bats.
Brett Anderson will make the start for the A’s, squaring off with Colby Lewis. The two faced off on April 30 in Oakland with Lewis prevailing as Anderson suffered his worst outing of the year. Anderson gave up seven earned runs over five innings as the A’s lost 11-2. Lewis gave up just two runs over eight innings in the best performance of what has been an up and down season.
Oakland Athletics
1. David DeJesus RF
2. Daric Barton 1B
3. Ryan Sweeney CF
4. Josh Willingham LF
5. Hideki Matsui DH
6. Kurt Suzuki C
7. Mark Ellis 2B
8. Andy LaRoche 3B
9. Cliff Pennington SS
Texas Rangers
1. Julio Borbon CF
2. Elvis Andrus SS
3. Ian Kinsler 2B
4. Michael Young DH
5. Mitch Moreland 1B
6. Adrian Beltre 3B
7. David Murphy LF
8. Mike Napoli C
9. Craig Gentry RF