Boston @ Oakland preview
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum
Last Meeting ( Sep 10, 2010 ) Boston 0, Oakland 5
One of the pitchers the Oakland Athletics like facing the least will try to continue his long-time mastery of the franchise on Saturday night.
John Lackey will be on the mound for the Boston Red Sox on Saturday in the second contest of a three-game series. Lackey has always been a major thorn in the side to Oakland.
Lackey has a 17-4 record and 2.86 ERA in 30 career starts against the Athletics - with the first 29 of them coming when he played for the Los Angeles Angels.
His first start against Oakland as a member of the Red Sox resulted in a victory earlier this season. Lackey surrendered four runs, 12 hits and walked two in six innings, but Boston's offense carried it to a 9-4 victory.
Lackey has had good success pitching in Oakland, where he’s 8-3 with a 2.86 ERA.
The right-hander is probably glad to see the Athletics as an opponent as he has dropped his last two decisions.
Lackey is 12-9 with a 4.48 ERA during an up-and-down first season with the Red Sox. Still, he has more victories than he did a year ago when he went 11-8 for the Angels.
The Athletics won the opening game of the series, 5-0, as second-year pitcher Trevor Cahill improved to 16-6. Oakland knocked American League ERA leader Clay Buchholz out of the game in the second inning after scoring five runs off the right-hander.
Oakland sends left-hander Brett Anderson to the mound on Saturday.
Anderson (4-6, 2.97 ERA) snapped a personal four-game losing skid by pitching well against the Seattle Mariners in his last outing when he gave up one run and four hits over 7 2/3 innings.
Anderson went 33 days between victories, even though he has allowed more than two earned runs just once over his last seven starts.
Anderson pitched against Boston in early June and had to leave after two innings with elbow soreness. He went on the disabled list and missed the next eight weeks. He is 2-1 with a 2.63 ERA in four career starts against Boston.
Though Oakland has struggled against Lackey, first baseman Daric Barton has a .350 career average (7-for-20) against him and designated hitter Jack Cust is batting .296 with three homers and six RBIs in 27 career at-bats.
Athletics leadoff hitter Coco Crisp went 3-for-3 with three stolen bases on Friday. Crisp has 27 steals and has been successful on 19 consecutive attempts.