Oakland @ Boston preview

Last Meeting ( Jul 30, 2009 ) Oakland 5, Boston 8

No one was happy when Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim slugger Kendry Morales broke his leg celebrating his walk-off grand slam on Saturday.

Except, perhaps, fans of the Oakland Athletics.

The Athletics try to maintain their surprising lead in the AL West in the opener of the three-game series against the Boston Red Sox Tuesday night at Fenway Park.

Oakland is currently tied with the Texas Rangers atop the division. The favored Angels, who will be without their top hitter for at least eight weeks and possibly the rest of the season, are 2.5 games back.

The A's send Gio Gonzalez to the hill in the series opener. Gonzalez (5-3) leads the promising rotation in wins this season. Along with Dallas Braden, who threw a perfect game earlier in the year, and Brett Anderson, who returned from the disabled list last week to throw 5 2/3 shutout innings against the Tigers, the A's starters surprisingly rank among the league's best.

They lead the American League with seven shutouts and are fourth in the ERA (3.82).

John Lackey starts for Boston. Lackey is 16-4 against Oakland in his career - the most victories he has against any team.

David Ortiz continues to pace the Red Sox offense. Ortiz will remember the month of May fondly. He probably resurrected his career in May by batting .363 with 10 homers and 26 RBIs.

When May began, Ortiz was mired in a prolonged slump and many fans assumed his release was imminent. They clamored for Mike Lowell to claim his spot at designated hitter.

Boston manager Terry Francona remained patient, however, and Ortiz made him look like a genius. Ortiz regained his power stroke and raised his average over a hundred points in the month. Instead of appearing overmatched by the fastball Ortiz once again feasted on the pitch like he had years before.

Boston went 11-6 in a grueling stretch of 17 days against many of the best teams in baseball. It begins the month of June just two games behind the New York Yankees in the wild card race - 6.5 games behind the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays.

Mike Cameron had his first two RBIs of the season in Sunday's win. Limited to 15 games with an abdominal tear, Cameron had a wall-ball double to score a pair of runs in Sunday's 8-1 win over the Kansas City Royals.

The Athletics defeated Detroit, 4-1, on Monday. Trevor Cahill notched the win and Andrew Bailey recorded his 11th save of the year. Oakland has won five of its last six games.