Game 98: Sunny Afternoon

The A's will try to salvage a split of the four game series this afternoon. They'll have a decent shot at it. They send 25 year old lefty Dallas Braden to the mound. Despite his 7-8 record, he has a 3.40 ERA (120 ERA+), a WHIP of 1.295 and a K/BB ratio of 2.23. He's allowed two ER or fewer in nine of his last ten starts dating back to May 31st. He's never faced the Yankees.

Meanwhile, the Yankees send Sergio Mitre to the mound. For the time being at least, the sinkerballer is the Yankees' 5th starter. He gave up 4 runs, three earned, in going 5.2 innings and getting the win against Baltimore Tuesday. He's never faced Oakland.

A-Rod gets the day off, with Cody Ransom getting his second straight start.

Bad news just breaking from lohud. Brett Gardner is on the DL with a broken thumb, suffered breaking up a first inning double play yesterday. The dude played the whole game, hit a triple, and made two very nice catches yesterday, all with a broken thumb. This is a bad break for the Yanks; your time to shine Melky. Jonathan Albaladejo is up for the time being, but a posistion player will soon join the roster. It could be Ramiro Pena, or Xavier Nady could be moved to the 60 day DL to make room for Shelley Duncan, Austin Jackson, or John Rodriguez.

We're officially mailing it in again today folks. Jay is caught up with the vagaries of moving and I've been exiled to Southern California until Thursday. Weather.com says the Bronx will be mostly cloudy today, but it's a nice sunny afternoon in the summertime here. Of course, I thought the song title was "Sunday Afternoon", so I'm mailing that one in too. Enjoy the game.



And I love to live so pleasantly
Live this life of luxury
Lazing on a sunny afternoon
In the summertime