The Oakland Athletics (43-31) will look to earn a split with the Texas Rangers (40-32) in a four-game set at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington today at 2:05 p.m., as well as push their American League West lead to three games. The game can be live streamed here. Listen to the Rangers action on 103.3 ESPN or to the Athletics' broacast on 95.7 The Game.
Oakland will call on A.J. Griffin (5-6, 3.93 ERA) to go up against the Adrian Beltre-led Texas offense. Beltre started slowly this season, but has heated up to boiling temperatures; his average is now at .305 and he has racked up 14 home runs and 39 RBI to go with it.
In Beltre's last 28 days, he's raking at a .388 clip, with four home runs and 10 RBI in that span. Beltre's been helped by Nelson Cruz, who has avoided the injury bug so far and is turning in a fine season that has really eased the departure of Josh Hamilton.
Cruz is batting .270 in 2013, and he's belted 18 home runs while driving in 50 runs. He's tied for sixth in MLB in homers with Adam Dunn of the Chicago White Sox, and trails MLB-leader Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles by eight taters.
Texas busted out of a major offensive power outage in a win over Oakland yesterday, prompting manager Ron Washington to expect big things going forward.
"I think we can go out there now and be competitive," Washington said. "I think we got the monkey off our back as far as having a total drought offensively. I think some guys are starting do some things all throughout the lineup. We start getting more consistent, then we'll get back to playing our baseball."
Josh Lindblom (0-2, 5.94 ERA) will start for Texas, which could be worrisome against Oakland's steady, powerful offense. After a red-hot start to the season, A's third baseman Josh Donaldson has cooled off, batting an ice-cold .163 in his last 14 games.
Lindblom is hoping the rest of the team follows his lead.
© Copyright 2024 Sports World News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.