Chasing wild card, A's go for series win vs. Tigers
Left-hander Sean Manaea hopes his second start of the season is as good as his first when he takes the mound for the host Oakland Athletics against the Detroit Tigers on Sunday afternoon.
The clubs have split games in the regularly scheduled portion of the series, although the A's added a second win when they completed a suspended game from May with a 7-3 win early Friday evening.
The Tigers will look to avoid their first 100-loss season since 2003 by sending lefty Daniel Norris (3-11, 4.76 ERA) up against Manaea (0-0, 0.00).
A 12-game winner each of the last two seasons, Manaea hadn't pitched in nearly a year following shoulder surgery before throwing five shutout innings against the New York Yankees last Sunday. He allowed only one hit and three walks while striking out five.
"I like the fact that he put up zeroes and really looked like when we saw him at his best," A's manager Bob Melvin told reporters Saturday. "Velo was a little bit higher than we saw most of last year, the change-up was terrific, and he threw just enough sliders to make sure it was a three-pitch mix. So we couldn't have expected more out of his first start."
The 27-year-old will be facing the Tigers for the third time in his career, having gone 1-1 with a 3.75 ERA on the first two occasions.
Norris will be seeing the A's for the second time this season. He was bombed for home runs by Mark Canha and Chad Pinder in a 7-2 home defeat in May, in which he was charged with six runs on seven hits in 5 1/3 innings.
He has gone 0-1 with a 9.00 ERA in two career starts against the A's.
The Tigers will be looking to rebound from a loss Sunday, a completely different mindset from the one they experienced Saturday.
Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire noted before Saturday's game that he was only too happy to join in on the fun on a joyous bus ride from Oakland to the team's San Francisco-area hotel late Friday night after going extra innings to pull out a 5-4 win on the heels of having lost the suspended game earlier in the evening.
"It's a long day when you start out and you're the home team and then you become the visitors in the night game," he assured reporters. "But it was fun. The guys were into it in the dugout. We got some big hits, we executed a little bit, so it was a fun ballgame for us."
There was little to enjoy Saturday night, with the A's using a four-run fourth inning to take the lead for good in their fifth win in six head-to-heads with the Tigers this season.
The A's have outscored the Tigers 49-16 in the six games.
Oakland (83-59) will take the field Sunday one game behind Tampa Bay (85-59) atop the American League wild card standings. Cleveland (82-61) trails the A's by 1 1/2 games.
--Field Level Media
