Texas @ Oakland preview
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Last Meeting ( May 3, 2010 ) Texas 4, Oakland 2
Justin Duchscherer’s comeback season is facing a temporarily delay as the Oakland Athletics’ two-time All-Star pitcher will miss Tuesday’s start against the Texas Rangers due to hip inflammation.
The right-hander’s 2008 season ended prematurely because of a hip injury and then he missed all of the 2009 campaign with an elbow injury and a bout of depression.
He returned this season and pitched well in three straight starts prior to leaving an April 29 start against the Toronto Blue Jays early when the hip acted up.
Instead of pitching Tuesday, Duchscherer will receive a cortisone shot and could begin throwing later in the week. If he doesn’t respond to treatment, he will likely be placed on the disabled list.
Losing Duchscherer for any length of time would be a blow for an Oakland rotation that is already missing left-hander Brett Anderson, who is on the disabled list with elbow soreness.
Duchscherer is 2-1 with a 2.89 ERA. Oakland won each of his first four starts before losing the game to Toronto in the outing Duchscherer left after just 3 1/3 innings.
Right-hander Vin Mazzaro will start Tuesday’s game against the Texas Rangers in the second of a three-game series between the AL West rivals.
Mazzaro has been pitching at Triple-A Sacramento this season but did make 17 starts for the Athletics last season. He was roughed up frequently as opposing hitters batted .319 against him and hit 12 homers in 91 1/3 innings. Mazzaro went 4-9 with a 5.32 ERA.
Oakland did receive some good news on the pitching front when setup man Michael Wuertz was activated. Wuertz had been recovering from shoulder tendinitis.
The A’s have lost six of their last seven games and are going in the opposite direction of Texas, which has won four straight games and six of its last seven.
The Rangers swept the Seattle Mariners over the weekend and then beat Oakland on Monday behind the pitching of Rich Harden, who hurled seven shutout innings.
Texas has received exceptional pitching over the past week and Scott Feldman will try to continue the streak.
A 17-game winner last season, Feldman hasn’t gotten things together yet this season. He enters Tuesday’s game with a 1-2 record and 4.50 ERA.
Feldman failed to make it past the fourth inning in back-to-back April starts but pitched well against the Chicago White Sox in his most-recent start. He gave three runs – one earned – and two hits in six innings while taking a no-decision.
The Rangers’ Michael Young had his third multiple-hit game during the four-game winning streak by going 3-for-5 with an RBI-double during Monday’s win. Young is 7-for-20 during the stretch to raise his average to .269.
Oakland’s Kevin Kouzmanoff hit his second homer of the season on Monday and the A’s are hoping he’s about to heat up. He’s traditionally a slow starter with just five career homers in April, including one this year.