Detroit @ Oakland preview

Detroit at Oakland

Last Meeting ( May 19, 2010 ) Detroit 5, Oakland 1

There will be the unlikeliest of reunions when the Detroit Tigers take on the Oakland Athletics in the second of a two-game series this afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum.

Tigers sluggers Brennan Boesch and A's starting pitcher Tyler Ross, former college teammates at nearby Cal-Berkeley, have unexpectedly been thrust into prominent roles with their respective clubs.

Anyone who said they saw this confrontation coming between the two rookies probably also predicted a Royals-Pirates matchup in the 2010 World Series.

Boesch has been the biggest early-season revelation in baseball. Promoted from the minors only because of an injury to Carlos Guillen, Boesch has assaulted major league pitching in a manner not seen since Robert Redford in The Natural.

The left-handed hitting outfielder collected multiple hits in 10 of his first 20 games, raising his average to .387, before he was cooled off by A's scorching lefty Dallas Braden on Wednesday night.

Boesch went 0-for-3 to snap an eight-game hitting streak. It also marked just the fourth time in 21 games he has failed to get a hit.

Detroit ace Justin Verlander made sure that didn’t matter, tossing a complete game and winning his fourth straight start to lead the Tigers to a 5-1 win.

So that will leave it up to Ross to try and contain Boesch and the Tigers, who have won 12 of their last 19 games even though 15 of those contests were against last year’s four American League playoff teams.

If that’s not enough pressure in itself, factor in that Ross will be making just his second major league start – and first at home in the city where he starred in high school.

A second-round draft pick of the A’s in 2008, Ross made the club out of spring training this year as a reliever. He made 11 appearances out of the bullpen – only one longer than two innings – before being shoved into an emergency start against the Los Angeles Angels last Saturday when Justin Duchscherer was scratched during warm-ups.

The results were fairly predictable for Ross, who learned he would be starting while he was in the clubhouse just prior to the game.

After setting down the first 11 men he faced, Ross surrendered back-to-back singles and a three-run homer and was pulled after throwing 62 pitches. For good measure, he had developed a blister on his right index finger, which could be a factor in today’s start.

Ross could use some help from Oakland’s Jekyll-and-Hyde offense. The A’s had scored just five runs during their recent five-game losing streak before busting out with 31 hits in a two-game sweep of Seattle on Monday and Tuesday.

But the bats turned to sawdust again Wednesday, producing just four singles against Verlander.