A’s Look To Get Back To Their Swingin’ Ways Against The Jays

The Athletics are coming off two straight losses to the Rays and their first series loss since the end of June.  The Bats have been silenced the past few days only scoring 5 runs in the series loss to the Rays.  This happened right after a 6-game road trip where the A’s scored a total of 48 runs.  With that being said, the Athletics scored 27 of those 48 runs while they were in Toronto playing the Blue Jays.  The Athletics will try and get back to their scoring ways once again when they start the first game of a 4-game set against the Jays at the Coliseum.

On the hill tonight for the Oakland Athletics will be veteran Bartolo Colon.  Colon, who is 7-8 with a 3.78 ERA, has pitched very well all season long and has brought leadership to the A’s young pitching staff.  His spot in the rotation could not being coming at a better time.  Bartolo Colon is the perfect guy to have pitching during a time of struggle.  He can showcase his leadership tonight and show the young pitchers how to turn the page and get back to business.  Look for him to lead the A’s to victory and get them back on track to start the month of August.

The Toronto Blue Jays will be sending right handed pitcher Henderson Alvarez to the mound for the first game of the series.  Alvarez is sitting at an even .500 record at 7-7 with a 4.43 ERA.  Although he is 2-0 in his last three starts, he does have a 4.82 ERA during that stretch.  Coming to the Coliseum he will be able to use the foul territory to his advantage (as will Bartolo Colon) and try to make sure the Oakland Athletics offense keeps struggling.

DownSide: The Athletics are coming off a very tough series loss against the Tampa bay Rays where the offense was shutdown.

UpSide: The A’s are sending an experienced veteran in Bartolo Colon to the hill in the first game of the 4-game series.  In his last 122 innings pitched against the Jays, he is 8-4 with a 4.06 ERA and 97 K’s.  I think I like my chances with Colon tonight.