Oakland Athletics starting pitcher Kendall Graveman (49) will start tonight against the visiting Texas Rangers is shown here throwing in the first inning during a Major League Baseball game between the Oakland Athletics and the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston, TX on August 19. Chris Brown/CSM (Cal Sport Media via AP Images)

by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s are off today, August 24th. They returned home from a six-day road trip to Houston and Baltimore. Houston continued its mastery of the A’s as they took two out three. The A’s won the last game of the series after A’s manager Bob Melvin talked to the young players and convinced they that they can compete with the better teams. The A’s took the message to heart against Baltimore. They went 1-2 against the O’s, but they played hard and could have won the series. The young guys hit home runs and battled the O’s as they came back from a five-run deficit on Wednesday to tie the game in the ninth only to lose in overtime. The A’s fans know that the A’s are not going anywhere this year but are sensing good times may not be too far away.

With that said, The A’s will be facing their division rivals, the Texas Rangers, this weekend in Oakland. The Rangers are 63-63 for the season. Their record does not include the game they are playing with the LA Angels in Anaheim on Thursday. The Rangers find themselves with a chance to make the playoffs as the second Wild Card team. They are just two games behind the Minnesota Twins in the race for that spot.

The A’s goal, this weekend is to upset the Rangers’ applecart. They would love to sweep the series, or, at least take two-out of three from Texas. The Rangers don’t want that to happen. They will be sending A.J.Griffin, Cole Hamels, and Tyson Ross out to stop the A’s. Griffin beat the A’s the last time he faced them. Hamels is always one tough cookie to beat and he his record of 9-1 shows how tough he is. Tyson Ross began his career with the A’s. Ross has been on the DL but when he is on his game can be hard to beat.

The Rangers have players that can hit and hit with power. Their offense is led by third baseman Adrian Beltre. Beltre also spent time on the DL in 2017, but he is back and producing. He is hitting .311 with 16 homers and 59 RBIs. Shortstop Elvis Andrus leads the team in hitting and right-fielder Nomar Mazara leads the Rangers with 83 RBIs.

Other players with a lot of pop in their bats include second baseman, Rougned Odor. Odor is hitting.222 but has hit 27 homers and driven in 61. Mike Napoli, who is not hitting for average and strikes out a lot, has 26 homers on his resume and he has brought 59 runners home for Texas. The team leader in home runs, Joey Gallo, is on the 7-day concussion protocol and will not play this weekend. Gallo, like Napoli and Rob Deer, is not hitting for average. Gallo is hitting .202 but has 35 bombs to his credit so far.

The A’s pitchers will have their hands full trying to contain the Rangers’ big bats. Kendall Graveman, Seas Manaea, and Jharel Cotton will pitch for Oakland. Graveman is starting to show the form that he had in the second half of last year. Graveman won 10 games for the A’s last season, but he has struggled this year as he has had two stints on the DL. If he has command and can locate his pitches, he is tough to beat. Manaea was moved back as the A’s felt that he was beginning to wear down as he lost velocity on his pitches and had a couple of bad outings. He will go this weekend and the extra days of rest should help him. Jharel Cotton is looking to regain the magic that he showed at the end of the season last year. Cotton had a good outing the last time he pitched, and he will need to improve so that he can stay in the rotation and in the plans for the future.

The Rangers’ pitching will focus on shutting down the young A’s hitters. The A’s have guy in the lineup with a lot of power. Ryon Healy, Matt Olson, Matt Chapman, Marcus Semien, Matt Joyce, Chad Pinder, and Khris Davis all can hit the ball out of the yard. The A’s veteran, Jed Lowrie, has hit twelve homers and has hit 37 doubles, as he rebounds from a foot injury that limited his play last year.

It looks like it will be a fun series to watch. The players will have the nickname uniforms, and it will be Dennis Eckersley bobblehead day on Saturday. Lots of good reasons to come out to the ballpark.