The Oakland Athletics wrap up their three game set against the Kansas City Royals with an 11:10am pacific Sunday matchup. The A’s dropped a tough one on Saturday as the Royals knocked home the winning run in the bottom of the ninth on a sac fly. The loss dropped the A’s back to .500.
The A’s will send out Tyson Ross to face Jeff Francis. Ross has yet to win a start, but he has put together very strong outings his last two times through the rotation. After struggling in his first start in place of Dallas Braden, Ross has given up one run on twelve hits and one walk in 13 innings pitched. Jeff Francis on the other side has struggled after a strong start to 2011. He’s given up 15 earned runs over 12 2/3 innings pitched in his last three starts.
The A’s have made one slight lineup change as they are bumping David DeJesus down to sixth in the batting order. DeJesus has struggled in his first year with the A’s. He has a line of .232/.310/.330 and has been unable to put any sort of consistency together. If the A’s are going to make any sort of run at some point they’ll need DeJesus to get things going.
Oakland Athletics
1. Coco Crisp (S) CF
2. Daric Barton (L) 1B
3. Conor Jackson® LF
4. Josh Willingham® DH
5. Kurt Suzuki® C
6. David DeJesus (L) RF
7. Mark Ellis® 2B
8. Kevin Kouzmanoff® 3B
9. Cliff Pennington (S) SS
Kansas City Royals
1. Chris Getz (L) 2B
2. Melky Cabrera (S) DH
3. Alex Gordon (L) LF
4. Jeff Francoeur® RF
5. Eric Hosmer (L) 1B
6. Wilson Betemit (S) 3B
7. Mitch Maier (L) CF
8. Brayan Pena (S) C
9. Alcides Escobar® SS