The Oakland Athletics wrap up their three-game series with the Kansas City Royals hoping to snag their first series victory since May. The A’s snuck away with a 2-1 win as their struggling offense did just enough to win. Gio Gonzalez meets Jeff Francis in Thursday’s rubber match.
Manager Bob Melvin seems to be settling into a fairly stable lineup after a week of mixing and matching. When healthy, the lineup you see below would appear to be the plan for the foreseeable future. Adam Rosales was expected to compete for more playing time but Scott Sizemore is playing at a level that I can’t imagine too many people expected. He’s locked himself into the sixth spot in the lineup and as long he continues performing, he won’t be moved anytime soon.
The bottom of the lineup would appear to be locked in at Suzuki-Barton-Weeks. Jemile Weeks has really settled in since being called up and has one more week until Mark Ellis can be activated from the disabled list. If he keeps anything resembling his current pace, Weeks will put the A’s in a position where they have to decide what to do with Ellis as opposed to deciding what to do with Weeks.
Oakland Athletics
1. Coco Crisp CF
2. Cliff Pennington SS
3. Hideki Matsui DH
4. Josh Willingham LF
5. Conor Jackson RF
6. Scott Sizemore 3B
7. Kurt Suzuki C
8. Daric Barton 1B
9. Jemile Weeks 2B