The Oakland Athletics open up a three game series with the New York Yankees Monday night sending out Trevor Cahill to face Bartolo Colon. Cahill is coming off a poor outing against the Angels in which he gave up ten hits, walked five batters and took his second straight loss. He only gave up four runs (three earned), but he lacked the control that has been key for him in 2011.
Cahill will face a Yankees lineup that leads the American League in runs scored and OPS. They have three players with double digit home run totals, with two more at nine home runs. Given the A’s struggles scoring runs this season, Cahill will have to pitch a pretty solid game if Oakland is going to take the first game of the series.
The A’s decided not to go with Ryan Sweeney against the right-hander Colon. They find themselves in a bit of a conundrum when it comes to their starting lineup. Matsui is struggling to get going with a line of .226/.282/.346. He’s generally been a slow starter so the team has to be hoping he’ll heat up with the weather in June. The question becomes how long does the team wait before making playing time adjustments?
Oakland Athletics
1. Coco Crisp CF
2. Daric Barton 1B
3. David DeJesus RF
4. Josh Willingham LF
5. Hideki Matsui DH
6. Kurt Suzuki C
7. Mark Ellis 2B
8. Kevin Kouzmanoff 3B
9. Cliff Pennington SS
New York Yankees
1. Derek Jeter SS
2. Curtis Granderson CF
3. Mark Teixeira 1B
4. Alex Rodriguez 3B
5. Robinson Cano 2B
6. Russell Martin C
7. Jorge Posada DH
8. Nick Swisher RF
9. Brett Gardner LF