Nice win last night. Unfortunately, Armando Benitez allowed 2 runs in the 9th against Oakland last night, meaning that the A's are still a half-game up on the Rangers for first place...
Buck Showalter says that Mark DeRosa is a starter for the team now. That would seem to put Kevin Mench, Brad Wilkerson, and Jason Botts into part-time roles...
As I mentioned yesterday, this is fine so long as DeRosa is hitting .340...but when he stops hitting like that, a change will need to be made...
Frankie Francisco did not appear in Frisco's game last night, as he had been scheduled to do. Francisco was supposed to pitch in back-to-back games for the first time, but had "muscle soreness" which kept him out of yesterday's game. Evan Grant says that if Frankie could have pitched last night, he likely would have been activated this coming Thursday, but now that is in doubt...
Mark Mulder is having shoulder problems...
Lefthander Mark Mulder will be shelved at least through the All-Star break and probably longer after an MRI on Friday found that he has been pitching with a shoulder impingement, inflammation of the rotator cuff and slight fraying of the labrum.
Awful break for Mulder...he has a 6.09 ERA this season, and he's in his contract year. He's going to be headed into free agency with some huge questions surrounding his future...