by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s welcome the Milwaukee Brewers to the Coliseum Tuesday night in Oakland. The visit by the Brewers will be their first appearance here in fourteen years. The games Tuesday and Wednesday will end their longest drought of any road venue.

The A’s visited Milwaukee earlier this month, and the results were not good for the Green and Gold as the Brewers won both games. The A’s are hoping to turn the tables and return the favor this week. The pitching matchups appear to be very attractive. Sonny Gray, who has been pitching relatively well since coming off the disabled list, had a game go south on him last week against Texas. Gray was the Sonny of old for five innings, but the roof caved in on him in the sixth. Texas’ hitters banged out four extra-base hits ( two homers and two doubles) and Sonny lost his sixth game of the year. Milwaukee’s starter will be Jimmy Nelson. Nelson was the number one pitcher for the Brewers for the first two months of the season. However, his record in June is 0-3 and he his ERA this month is a staggering 9.69. His record, overall, is 5-6, 3.92 ERA.

The Wednesday day game will feature the A’s rookie starter, Daniel Mengden going against the Brewers’ Junior Guerra. The thirty-one tear old Guerra sports a record of 3-1, 3.81 ERA and has been very effective using a split-finger fastball. The A’s will counter with young Daniel Mengden. Mengden has made two starts since being called up from Nashville. He is 0-2 but, in his last start against Texas, he went six innings and allowed just two runs. Had the A’s been able to get some hits off Colby Lewis, the result might have been different. However, Lewis was fantastic as he was working on a perfect game until Max Muncy doubled in the eighth inning.

The Brewers, like the A’s, are not playing well. Since the Series with the A’s, the Brewers are 3-7 and are in fourth place in the NL Central with a record of 31-39. The A’s are having a terrible June as they are just 3-12 in their last fifteen games and have fallen to 28-41. They are thirteen games under .500 and have their worst record at this date in June since 1997.

Key Brewer players to watch are shortstop Jonathan Villar, First baseman Chris Carter, catcher Jonathan Lucroy and left-fielder Ryan Braun. Tyler Thornburg is their setup guy, and Jeremy Jeffress is their closer. Trade rumors are swirling in Milwaukee as the Brew Crew may be sellers at the trade deadline. Lucroy, Braun, Jeffress and third baseman Aaron Hill have trade value. The Brewers have denied that they are interested in trading Braun or Lucroy but to quote Don  Vito Corleone, some GM may make “an offer they can’t refuse.”

The A’s, on the other hand, are hoping to get some strong performances from the starting rotation. Rich Hill and Sean Manaea are making progress and should be off the DL soon.Kendall Graveman pitched well Friday night, and lefty Eric Surkamp had his best game of the season for Oakland. The A’s failed to give him any run support as Jared Weaver dazzled the A’s with his off-speed stuff. Trade winds are also swirling here in Oakland. There was a report that the Mets were interested in third baseman Danny Valencia. Josh Reddick and Khris Davis, both free agents at the end of the year might be playing elsewhere after July 31st. The A’s biggest chip is Sonny Gray. The Red Sox are desperate for another starter and have chips to dangle before Billy Beane and David Forst.