The Oakland Athletics meet the Arizona Diamondbacks Saturday evening in the second game of their three-game interleague series at O.Co Coliseum. The A’s opened the series with a 5-4 victory Friday night in which Rich Harden displayed dominant stuff and the A’s offense had more hits with two outs and runners in scoring position than in the previous eight games combined.
The A’s will stick with Chris Carter on offense, playing him at first base and hitting fifth in the A’s lineup. Carter has struggled at the plate since his call-up but the potential is enough to justify keeping him in the lineup in the hope that he can get the power going.
The A’s made a slight change to their lineup as Cliff Pennington will get the day off and Adam Rosales will start at shortstop. With this change in the field, Scott Sizemore has been moved up to the two spot in the starting lineup. That puts Sizemore and Jemile Weeks at the top of lineup, which means the top two batting averages on the A’s roster will be the table setters for Coco Crisp and Hideki Matsui.
Oakland Athletics
1. Jemile Weeks 2B
2. Scott Sizemore 3B
3. Coco Crisp CF
4. Hideki Matsui DH
5. Chris Carter 1B
6. Conor Jackson LF
7. Kurt Suzuki C
8. David DeJesus RF
9. Adam Rosales SS
Arizona Diamondbacks
1. Willie Bloomquist SS
2. Kelly Johnson 2B
3. Justin Upton RF
4. Chris Young CF
5. Wily Mo Pena DH
6. Miguel Montero C
7. Xavier Nady 1B
8. Ryan Roberts 3B
9. Gerardo Parra LF