Oakland @ Cleveland preview

Last Meeting ( Aug 25, 2010 ) Oakland 6, Cleveland 1

The Oakland Athletics’ starting pitching has been so good for so long that Thursday they can tie an 83-year-old franchise record. Facing the Cleveland Indians should help as well.

Oakland’s starters have allowed three runs or less in 17 consecutive games, one shy of the franchise mark set by the Philadelphia Athletics in 1927, according to STATS LLC. Mazzaro hasn’t won since July 24, but he has pitched well in the process. He is 0-2 in his last four starts, but is sporting a 2.13 ERA over that stretch. He has allowed just one homer in his last 25 1/3 innings.

The Athletics’ starting pitching has been tremendous all season, but it has been nearly unhittable during the first two games of this series. Facing one of the worst teams in the American League, neither Gio Gonzalez nor Trevor Cahill allowed an earned run. Each worked seven innings in their respective starts and Cahill was touched for an unearned run during Wednesday’s 6-1 victory. Gonzalez pitched seven shutout innings.

The woeful Indians continue to struggle to do much of anything right. They have scored just four runs during their current five-game losing skid. They have lost seven of their last eight and are 7-15 during the month of August.

They went 21 consecutive innings without scoring until Asdrubal Cabrera singled home Jason Donald in the fifth inning Wednesday. It was the first run Cleveland scored since the first inning of an 8-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Sunday.

They’ll send Justin Masterson to the mound on Thursday in perhaps one of his final starts of the season. Masterson has struggled mightily at times in his first full season as a starter and has already pitched a career-high 145 innings.

The Indians have said they’ll shut him down as he nears 180 innings and use him exclusively out of the bullpen the rest of the way to save some wear on his arm. Carlos Carrasco, who has pitched well recently in Triple-A and is a strong candidate for a September call-up, is likely to take Masterson’s spot in the rotation.

Masterson allowed five runs and 11 hits in six innings of a 6-0 loss to the Tigers in his last start. In his only other start this season against the Athletics, Masterson was drilled for seven runs in four innings on April 25 in an 11-0 loss. He has one win in his last nine starts.

Oakland hasn’t swept the Indians in Cleveland since taking a four-game series on Aug. 19-22, 2002.