A’s vs. Angels game thread

Looking to escape SoCal with at least one win

Alright gang. The squad has lost the first two games of the series against the hated division rival Los Angeles Angels. It’s not too late to steal a win from the fellow AL West cellar dwellers though.

The team will turn to rookie righty Joey Estes for the series finale. As with a lot of rookie pitchers, Estes’ first full season has been a bit up and down. He started the year off strong before getting shelled a couple times. He followed that up with a pair of quality outings before again getting hit hard. On the positive side of things Estes is coming off a solid start in which he allowed only two runs over six innings against the Minnesota Twins. Especially impressive considering his start just before that was also against the Twins but saw him yield six runs in less than three innings. We’ll be hoping for more of the former than the latter from Estes today.

Here is the Oakland lineup that’ll be backing Estes up today:

Second baseman Zack Gelof gets the day off in the series finale. There was hope that Gelof’s three homers in three days was the start of the turning point in his season but since then has gone just 2-for-17, which probably prompted Kotsay to give Gelof today off as a mini reset. The club does have a day off tomorrow so hopefully these two days can help the sophomore second baseman to mentally reset.

Taking Gelof’s spot in the lineup is rookie Armando Alvarez. The right-handed infielder collected his first, second, and third major league hits in last night’s contest, including his first career RBI. He’s being rewarded for that performance with his second straight start, this time at second base.

Elsewhere in the lineup outfielder JJ Bleday also gets the day off, as does starting catcher Shea Langeliers, who caught all nine innings in last night’s game. Taking over for them will be Lawrence Butler and Kyle McCann.

The Oakland bats will be facing off against right-hander Roansy Contreras. Once considered a rising pitcher with the Pirates, Contreras has been solid for the Angels out of the bullpen but is getting his first start of the season today, which should theoretically benefit the A’s. He’s only pitched three innings once so far this year so he shouldn’t be long for this game.

The Los Angeles lineup:

Come on A’s! Let’s nab us a Wednesday afternoon W!