April 19, 2006: vs Detroit Tigers

Huh. Here's something we haven't seen in awhile: Kendall in the leadoff spot.

Oakland:
C Kendall
2B Ellis
SS Crosby
DH Thomas
RF Bradley
CF Payton
1B Swisher
LF Kielty
3B Perez

Also interesting is Ellis batting second and Chavez getting the night off. Has Macha given up already to Rogers?

Lewis Wolff owns the A's, but Kenny Rogers owns the A's.

Blanton faces A's-killer Kenny Rogers

These are the quotes floating around the A's website and the general mood of the team seems to be that they just can't beat Rogers. So either Macha has given up already and decided to save his best for tomorrow's game, opting instead for Kielty and Perez to get some playing time, or he is gambling that the newcomers on the A's will have better luck against Rogers than the regulars.

Detroit's starting line up:
CF Granderson
2B Polanco
C Rodriguez
RF Ordonez
DH Gomez
1B Shelton
SS Guillen
LF Monroe
3B Inge

It'll be Joe Blanton on the mound vs Kenny Rogers. Will update more later.

Update:
Bottom of the first. Kendall managed to get on base thanks to a fielding error by Guillen. It was a weak-ass hit, so Kendall got lucky. Ellis just popped out to LF.

Blanton managed to get through the 1st inning allowing only 1 hit.

Inning over - Crosby grounded into a DP.

2nd Inning:
Blanton gave up a double and a run.

But Thomas came in and hit his 4th HR to even things up. Bradley and Payton both fly out. Swisher just singled.

I know everyone loves Swisher, he is hitting unbelievably well right now, but anyone else notice his 1 BB vs 14 SO?? What happened to his plate discipline?

Uh Oh:
Top of the 4th and Detroit has scored another run with runners on 1st and 3rd - and ZERO outs.

Come on, Blanton!

Conclusion: Blanton couldn't make it 5 innings, allowing 7 earned runs. Saarloos allowed another run. Errors cost the A's 3 more unearned runs.

Pretty pathetic game.