Oakland @ Baltimore preview
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Last Meeting ( Jun 29, 2010 ) Oakland 4, Baltimore 2
One Oakland Athletics pitcher saw his recent misfortunes reversed in Tuesday's series opener against the Baltimore Orioles.
Another is hoping to do the same Wednesday, facing a Baltimore Orioles hurler who also hasn't done much of anything.
Veterans Ben Sheets and Kevin Millwood meet in a matchup of struggling starters as the Athletics look for their season-high fifth consecutive victory in the resumption of their three-game set with the Orioles.
Oakland opened with a 4-2 victory Tuesday, the loss ending Baltimore's season-high four-game winning streak.
Tuesday's game saw a return to the win column for struggling A's right-hander Vin Mazzaro, who won for the first time in four starts dating to early June. Mazzaro fared well as a late replacement for lefty Dallas Braden, who was scratched due to elbow stiffness.
Mazzaro was solid over six-plus innings, and had some help from Coco Crisp and Kurt Suzuki. Crisp had a single, double and triple, scoring twice and stealing a pair of bases. Suzuki added two hits and three RBIs, equaling his total from the last 11 games combined.
Sheets (3-7) hopes the Oakland lineup will show him the same support today. Oakland's marquee free-agent acquisition has been a bust to date, boasting a 5.01 ERA and having given up 14 home runs in just 93 1/3 innings so far.
The 32-year-old right-hander was given plenty of runs in his last outing, a 14-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Sheets allowed four runs on eight hits over six innings to earn his first victory since May 8 against the Tampa Bay Rays. He had gone 0-4 in eight decisions prior to that win.
Sheets is 1-1 with a 3.75 ERA in two career starts against Baltimore. His last one came back on April 15, when he tossed six shutout innings in a 6-2 win over the Orioles that provided him with his first victory in an Oakland uniform.
The Orioles counter with Millwood (2-8), who is going through his own miserable campaign. The 35-year-old righty is on a two-game winning streak after opening the season with eight consecutive losses, but he wasn't even all that sharp in his wins.
He was shelled for four runs on eight hits in only five innings of work in his last outing, but the Orioles picked him up en route to an 11-5 win over Florida.
Millwood has surrendered four or more runs in five of his last six starts, and has been tagged for a major league-high 19 home runs in just over 100 innings pitched - though he hasn't given up any long balls in his past two appearances.
Millwood has thrived against what is a traditionally weak Oakland lineup. He's 6-4 all-time with a 3.44 ERA in 17 career starts against the Athletics, allowing just nine home runs against them in 96 2/3 innings.
He faced Oakland on April 16 and absorbed the loss after allowing four runs on nine hits in six innings of a 4-2 defeat.