A’s Back Home Against The Indians, Milone Back On The Hill

The Athletics are back home tonight in Oakland to face a slumping Indians ball club.  After salvaging the last game of a 3-game series against the Kansas City Royals, the A’s will be back in the comfortable confines of the Oakland Coliseum.  The Cleveland Indians have been been playing dismal baseball and are bringing a dreadful 4-11 record during the month of August with them into Oakland.  This might just be what the A’s need to get back on track.  After posting a 19-5 record in the month of July, the Athletics are sitting on a 6-8 record in the midst of August, and have been struggling both offensively and defensively.  Oakland will look to kick it back into gear this weekend as the Athletics celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the 20-game winning streak at the Coliseum.

On the hill for the Athletics will be Tommy Milone who has not pitched since August 5th when he gave up six earned runs a against a Toronto offense that had been struggling.  Milone is 9-9 with a 3.91 ERA on the season but he had his last start skipped to give him extra rest.  The rest was granted to Milone in order to try and freshen up his arm due to the fact that he has given up at least five earned runs in each of his last three starts and collecting an 0-3 record with a 7.58 ERA.  The Athletics hope the extra rest is all that was needed for Tommy Milone and that he can get back to giving the team quality starts.

Taking the mound for the opposing Cleveland Indians will be Zach McAllister who has a 1-2 record with a 4.60 ERA over his past three starts.  The one win came against the Boston Redsox in his last start where he pitched a career-high eight unyielding innings, and gave up just two earned runs on three hits while striking out four.  McAllister is 5-4 with a 3.46 ERA on the year.

DownSide: The Athletics have only won 2 of their past 6 games.

UpSide:  Oakland will be facing a Cleveland team that has only won 4 games in their past 15.  They will also have Tommy Milone coming off of 11 days rest.

Probable Starters

Saturday, August 18th, 6:05 PM

Corey Kluber (0-1, 8.56 ERA) vs Bartolo Colon (9-9, 3.55 ERA)

Sunday, August 19th, 1:05 PM

Justin Masterson (9-10, 4.50 ERA) vs Jarrod Parker (7-7, 3.71 ERA)