Texas @ Oakland preview
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Last Meeting ( Jul 29, 2010 ) Oakland 4, Texas 7
The Texas Rangers finally have a new ownership group in place, led by Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan and Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg.
And, one of the first things Greenberg said after winning an auction early Thursday morning was that the team would try and sign left-hander Cliff Lee to a multi-year deal.
The Rangers traded for the Cy Young Award-winning Lee in early July. He is scheduled to make his sixth start for the team on Friday night when the Rangers travel to Oakland for a three-game series. The Athletics will counter with left-hander Dallas Braden.
Lee currently leads the American League with a 2.51 ERA and seven complete games, and has held opponents to a .227 average. In his first five starts with the Rangers, Lee is 1-2 with a 2.91 ERA. Both of his losses came in games in which he had a complete-game effort.
Lee has thrown at least eight innings in each of his last nine starts, the longest streak in the majors since Pat Hentgen had a 12-game run for Toronto in 1996.
Lifetime against Oakland, Lee is 4-2 with a 2.26 ERA in 11 games, including 10 starts. When he faced the A’s on July 27, he allowed only one unearned run over nine innings in what became a Rangers 3-1 victory in the 10th inning.
Offensively, the Rangers’ bats came to life late in Thursday’s game against the Seattle Mariners, producing three runs in each the seventh and eighth innings en route to a 6-0 victory.
David Murphy had a two-run home run and Elvis Andrus added an RBI single in the seventh. In the eighth, Nelson Cruz had an RBI double and eventually scored on a wild pitch. Bengie Molina also had a sacrifice fly.
Oakland, meanwhile, will be looking to Braden to hold the Texas offense in check.
Braden has finally showed signs of returning to form since throwing a perfect game on May 9. After putting his name in the record books, Braden didn’t get back into the win column until July 25.
He made it two consecutive victories by leading the A’s to victory in his last start against the Chicago White Sox on July 31. He threw a complete game, allowing two runs on eight hits with a walk and five strikeouts in a 6-2 victory.
Lifetime against the Rangers, Braden is 1-3 with a 3.86 ERA in nine games, including six starts.
The A’s were off Thursday but are coming off a 4-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals. Oakland scored all of its runs in the sixth, as Daric Barton had an RBI bunt single, Kurt Suzuki had an RBI groundout and Kevin Kouzmanoff had a two-run double.