April 30: Rubber Match Sunday, All Five AL West Clubs To Decide Weekend Series Today

The A's evened up the series against the Astros with a 2-1 win as Andrew Triggs struck out nine over seven innings - but they'll have to solve the Dallas Keuchel riddle this afternoon to win the series.

The Rangers  evened up the series at home against the Angels with a 6-3 win as Carlos Gomez hit for the cycle and Yu Darvish struck out 10 over six innings.

The Mariners find themselves in the rubber match against the Indians in Cleveland today after losing a close one, 4-3, last night despite homers by Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager. 

The Astros lost but got a good piece of news: Joe Musgrove  pitched very well through 6  1/3 innings, giving up just one earned run. 

Jesse Chavez, who has been the best Angels starter, had a tough outing in the loss to the Rangers that ended the team's five-game winning streak.


Astros (15-9)

Both Musgrove and Charlie Morton pitched well in this series, which is key to the long-term success of the team. Keuchel can't pitch every game. He does tonight, however, and the way he has pitched leaves little doubt the Astros will take this weekend series against the A's.

The Astros have destroyed the AL West so far this season, going 11-4, but can they beat arch-nemesis the Rangers? We will all find out next week.


Angels (13-13)

Tough outing for Chavez, plus Jose Valdez got knocked around coming out of the bullpen. Mike Trout (of course) provided one of the few bright spots, hitting a double. Today the Angels look to win a road series for the first time this year with JC Ramirez on the mound. 

Read an argument on how Angels fans need to stop living in the past.  Also, Albert Pujols was ready to kick some butt on Saturday night. 


A's (11-13)

Last night's victory showed the A's making a solid effort to win a very close and well-played game. Problem is, they face Keuchel today in the rubber match. Jesse Hahn will be on the mound for the A's.


Josh Reddick still catches A's games on the TV. 

Rangers (11-13)

Darvish, with his 125 pitches, set the record so far this season for pitches in a game. Manager Jeff Banister said he left him in because he's the ace, which makes perfect sense, as does keeping him out there to avoid getting members of the dodgy bullpen out there too early in the game. They'll go for the series win today with Martin Perez on the mound. 

A look at how Banister approached the same situation with Darvish differently this past week. 


Mariners (11-14)

Last again? Sure, sure. But the Mariners have played ,500 ball over the past 10 games and are guaranteed at least a .500 performance on the road against the Tigers and Indians even if they lose today. But they might win. And that means they enter today with a chance of winning both series. That's not a bad spot for a team that was reeling a week ago.

Boog Powell makes a very strange debut. 



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