Florida @ Oakland preview

Last Meeting ( Jun 22, 2008 ) Florida 1, Oakland 7

THE STORY: The Florida Marlins have lost in a variety of ways during a horrid month of June, but it’s hard to imagine a more gut-wrenching defeat than their last setback. After a day off to digest a loss that had their 80-year-old interim manager shaking his head, the struggling Marlins continue their unexpectedly long West Coast road trip against Oakland on Tuesday. The Athletics return home after a 2-4 road trip that was punctuated by a 3-1 loss to Philadelphia on Sunday. This is the first meeting between the teams since 2008, when Florida lost two of three in Oakland.

TV: 10:05 p.m. ET, Fox Sports Florida, Comcast SportsNet California

PITCHING MATCHUP: LH Gio Gonzalez (6-5, 2.59 ERA) vs. RH Javier Vazquez (4-7, 6.37).

Gonzalez, who has the sixth-lowest ERA in baseball, is coming off another solid outing on Wednesday against the New York Mets. The lefthander allowed just one run and four hits in seven innings of a 13-inning loss. Gonzalez finished with eight strikeouts and now has 18 over his last two starts – the highest two-start total of his career. The outing against the Mets was his lone interleague start this season. Gonzalez, who has never faced the Marlins, went 1-2 with a 3.16 ERA in five starts against the National League last season.

Vazquez won for the first time in five starts on June 21. The embattled righthander scattered 10 hits over 5 1/3 innings in a 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. He is 5-3 with a 4.36 ERA in 10 games against Oakland. Vazquez may have a decent shot at his first winning streak of the season. He went 3-0 with a 2.65 ERA against Oakland in three games – two starts – with the Yankees last season.

ABOUT THE ATHLETICS (35-44): The A’s are maddeningly inconsistent. Oakland has lost four of five after rattling off six straight wins. Prior to the aforementioned six-game winning streak, the A’s had lost 13 of 14. Their uneven play is due to the fact that the third-best best pitching staff in baseball (3.17 ERA) is struggling to pick up the slack of the fourth-worst offense (280 runs) in the majors. Shortstop Cliff Pennington (0 for his last 18) will be back in the lineup after two days off. So will David Jesus, who now has just three hits in his last 38 at-bats after striking out as a pinch hitter Sunday.

ABOUT THE MARLINS (34-44): While the A’s have been maddeningly inconsistent, the Marlins have been consistently maddening in June. Florida has lost a franchise-record 22 games this month (2-22), and Sunday’s setback was by far the most disheartening of all. Reliever Steve Cishek threw a wild pitch on an attempted intentional walk, which allowed Seattle to score the go-ahead run in the 10th inning. That capped a bizarre series in which the Marlins were technically the home team (Florida was forced out of town early because the band U2 is performing at Sun Life Stadium later this week). The 2-1 loss dropped Florida to 2-4 under interim manager Jack McKeon.

FINAL PITCH: “I have never had it happen to me, in 60 years. I’ve seen it on television, but never had it against me or for me." – McKeon, on Cishek's gaffe that directly led to Sunday's loss.