A's Look to Take Series in Cleveland: Preview, Lineups

It has been nothing short of a cakewalk for the A's against the Cleveland Indians, beating them by a combined score of 10-0 over the first two games of the series.

Travis Blackley (4-3, 3.52 ERA) will look to continue that trend tonight as he takes on Corey Kluber (0-2, 5.32 ERA) of the Indians. Kluber's main issue is the first inning, where he has a sky-high 19.80 ERA this year. In all other innings, he has a 1.45 ERA.

So in other words, the A's must score early if they want to win today.

Lineup - A's vs. Indians, 4:05 PT

Crisp CF
Drew SS
Cespedes LF
Smith DH
Carter 1B
Reddick RF
Donaldson 3B
Norris C
Pennington 2B

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A's Continue Winning Ways, Shutout Indians Again

The Oakland A's are a streaky team. Luckily for their fans, winning streaks have been more common than losing streaks.

Tommy Milone pitched six solid innings, Chris Carter homered among his three hits and the A's beat the Indians 7-0 on Tuesday night. Zach McAllister became the latest Indian starter to get dominated by the A's offense.

Brandon Moss also drove in three runs and had two hits (including a home run), adding to Oakland's offensive attack. Carter drove a nice pitch the other way to give the A's a 5-0 lead in the fifth, and Moss blasted a 3-2 pitch into center field for a home run.

The A's are now 71-57 and currently riding a four-game winning streak. Corey Kluber (0-2) will pitch for Cleveland tomorrow, while Travis Blackley (4-3) gets the ball for the A's.

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A's vs. White Sox 8/11: Cook Loses Closing Job, Preview, Lineups

After a heartbreaking loss last night on a walk-off home run by Jordan Danks, the A's will look to bounce back in game two of this three game series.

Travis Blackley (4-3, 3.30 ERA) will get a spot start, and will face Francisco Liriano (3-10, 5.03 ERA) of the White Sox.

In other news, Bob Melvin said that closer Ryan Cook's next appearance will not be a save opportunity. That means the A's will likely go with a "closer by committee" until Cook gets his act straightened out.

Here are the starting lineups for both teams (courtesy of CSN), with the first pitch at 4:10 PT:

Oakland Athletics (60-52) lineup

1. Coco Crisp (S) CF
2. Jonny Gomes (R) DH
3. Josh Reddick (L) RF
4. Yoenis Cespedes (R) LF
5. Chris Carter (R) 1B
6. Brandon Inge (R) 3B
7. Derek Norris (R) C
8. Adam Rosales (R) SS
9. Jemile Weeks (S) 2B

Chicago White Sox (61-50) lineup

1. Alejandro De Aza (L) CF
2. Kevin Youkilis (R) 3B
3. Adam Dunn (L) 1B
4. Alex Rios (R) RF
5. A.J. Pierzynski (L) DH
6. Alexei Ramirez (R) SS
7. Dayan Viciedo (R) LF
8. Tyler Flowers (R) C
9. Gordon Beckham (R) 2B

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A's Rout Blue Jays Thanks to Two-Out Rally

The A's are known for playing tight ball games, which is proven by their league-leading 11 walk-off wins. Thankfully, this was not one of those nights.

Derek Norris started it all for the A's against the Toronto Blue Jays, hammering a two-run homer into left in the second inning.Travis Snider would respond in the third, crushing a solo shot to cut the A's lead in half to 2-1.

It would remain a close game until the seventh inning, when with two outs, the A's went on a furious rally. Brandon Hicks doubled, and Jemile Weeks tripled to knock him in, Then, after a pitching change, Coco Crisp knocked in Weeks with a double of his own. After loading the bases, Yoenis Cespedes delivered the knockout punch, clearing the bags with a single past the shift in left center. The score after all this? 7-1 Athletics.

JP Arencibia smacked a solo home run in the bottom of the ninth for the Blue Jays and the final score was 7-2 Oakland.

Travis Blackley pitched well for the A's, allowing just the one run on five hits in seven innings.

With their sixth straight win, the A's are now 52-44 and remain in the second wild card spot in the AL.

What's on Tap


AJ Griffin (2-0, 2.70 ERA) will take the mound against Ricky Romero (8-6, 5.22 ERA) in the Rogers Centre tomorrow.

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