That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

OAKLAND–A’s pitcher Bartolo Colon is the big difference he got 18 wins in the regular season and he’s been named to open game one on Friday night at 6:30PM at the Oakland Coliseum against the Detroit Tigers who are sending to the mound their number one ace Matt Scherzer. This is a battle for the Cy Young Award both are candidates but Scherzer probably has the better numbers. He won 20 games and you got an 18 game winner versus a 20 game winner and this should be a terrific series.

The big difference is Colon is having a tremendous season, the A’s Josh Donaldson he’s the most underrated player in baseball whose having a terrific season at third base and having close to 100 RBIs. Then the A’s Brandon Moss get ahold of this doesn’t play everyday, so your talking about a team that has improved, this is a better team this year for the A’s. The first game is crucial, this is a very short five game series if you lose at home your first game your already against the wall.

This is a very first game this game onFriday 6:38 PM and Saturday they play again at 6:08 PM these are crazy starting times to accommodate television for the east coast. Verlander is going in the second game for the Tigers and the first game your going to have Colon for Oakland against Scherzer. The A’s Sonny Gray will be a probable for game two on Saturday night a rookie 23 year old who’ll face Verlander.

It’s going to be extremely interesting the A’s are throwing their all time veteran 40 year Colon in game one and a real rookie in Gray a 23 year old going in game two. This will be a terrific series, the team who makes the least mistakes that team will win this thing. The Tigers are healthier and the Bengals Miguel Cabrera says he’s ready, this is going to be extremely, extremely tough and it’s going to go five games.

Scherzer during the season became the number one pitcher and Verlander was number two and you got Doug Fister at number three and you got a very good pitching going for Detroit. The Tigers bullpen is a little suspect, the A’s bullpen is a better bullpen and as a line up you have to go with the Tigers when you have guys like Tori Hunter, Prince Fielder, Cabrera, and your talking about mega stars here.

The A’s have a good team, the A’s don’t depend on one player, everybody does the job, they can hit and they can run. Coco Crisp has had a tremendous September. The A’s Yoenis Cespedes hit over .200 in September so the advantage as far as power is concerned goes to the Tigers and pitching is pretty close. The experience is with the Tigers except in the first game. Colon who already won one Cy Young is going for his second Cy Young and the pitching is very close in this one.

The bullpen goes to the A’s and the Tigers bullpen with Joaquin Benoit he’s a big guy but the Tigers bullpen is suspect and both teams play good defense this should be a five game series at least with game five finishing out the series in Oakland. The schedule Game one in Oakland Fri Oct 4, Game two in Oakland Sat Oct 5, Game three in Detroit Mon Oct 7, Game four in Detroit Tue Oct 8, and Game five Thu Oct 10th at Oakland.

These teams are very even for this year’s division series.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for Oakland Athletics baseball and does News and Commentary each week on Sportstalk radio