Oakland A's Game 78 Preview

• Date: July 1, 2009
• Time: 3:35 p.m.
• Teams: Detroit Tigers at Oakland Athletics
• Park: Oakland—Alameda County Stadium
• Weather: 77 degrees and sunny
• Starting Pitchers: Justin Verlander (8-3, 3.40),  Dallas Braden (5-7, 3.26)
• Records: Detroit (43-34),  Oakland (32-44)
• Last 10 Games: Detroit (7-3),  Oakland (3-7)

My Two Cents

Greetings against from our Nation’s capital. Today is a bit of a big game for the Tigers.  They have split the first two games of their three-game set with the lowly A’s, and a win today obviously gets them the series win. 

More than that, though, is that it would be nice to have the club getting off on the right foot for their weekend series in Minnesota. The Tigers currently lead their AL Central rivals by four games in the division and a series win this weekend would be absolutely huge. 

Detroit should have a decent shot this afternoon with Justin Verlander taking the hill. He’s cooled off in his last three starts with a 1-1 record and an ERA of 5.29. 

However, his innings have also been down over that time. Maybe a little breather was all the guy needed. Verlander has not faced Oakland yet this season but has 2.61 ERA in six career starts against them. 

Dallas Braden is going for the A’s and he has been their ace this season.  His record is below .500 because the team isn’t very good, but that ERA has been low all year.  Braden started against the Tigers back in May and got shelled. 

He took the loss as he coughed up 9 hits and 6 runs in only 5 innings of work. Ryan Raburn doubled and homered off the Oakland left-hander.