Rich Harden was scheduled to take the mound for the Oakland Athletics in the opener of a three-game home series against the rival Los Angeles Angels on Friday. Instead, Harden is now a member of the Chicago Cubs as the A’s traded away their ace hurler.
Harden had been enjoying good health over the past couple of months – a rare occurrence for the oft-injured righthander. And while the Athletics are still in the hunt for a playoff berth in the American League team management decided it was time to cash in on their ace’s arm. In exchange for Harden and fellow pitcher Chad Gaudin, the A’s picked up P Sean Gallagher, OF Matt Murton, IF Eric Patterson, and C Josh Donaldson.
Baseball odds get interesting because of this – instead of Harden the Athletics are now expected to send Gallagher to the mound on Friday night as they try to stay within striking distance of the Angels in the AL West. Gallagher was 3-4 with a 4.45 ERA for the Cubs this season, but he hasn’t earned a win since June 1. Against the Giants last time out, the righthander gave up four runs (three earned) on four hits over five innings of work, walking two batters and also fanning two.
Gallagher’s opponent on Friday will be the Angels’ Jon Garland. The righthander is 8-5 with a 3.76 ERA on the season, and he’s coming off one of his best outings of the year; against the Blue Jays on Sunday, Garland allowed just one run in a complete-game win.
Saturday’s probable pitchers are the Angels’ Ervin Santana (10-3, 3.53 ERA) and the Athletics’ Dana Eveland (7-5, 3.50 ERA). Santana could do no wrong earlier in the year, but offenses have been catching up to him lately. The righthander was knocked around for six earned runs on 10 hits (including two home runs) over seven innings against the Rangers on Monday night, but he still got his 10th win thanks to the nine runs of support.
Eveland has given up three or fewer earned runs in each of his last seven outings, although Oakland is just 4-3 in those contests. The lefthander faced the Angels on July 2 and picked up a no-decision after allowing three earned runs in 5 2-3 innings pitched.
Sunday’s finale will see Los Angeles’ Joe Saunders (12-5, 3.07 ERA) taking on Oakland’s Justin Duchscherer (10-5, 1.78 ERA), assuming the rotations aren’t switched around before the All-Star break. Saunders was tagged with a loss by the Rangers on Tuesday despite throwing eight solid innings, and he beat the Athletics back on July 2. Duchscherer is coming off a complete-game shutout win over the weakling Mariners.
Friday’s game is set for 10:05pm ET, with Saturday’s first pitch at 9:05pm ET, and Sunday’s first pitch at 4:05pm ET. The Angels beat the Athletics twice in a three-game set at home early last week, and they’ll be facing an Oakland lineup that is missing injured hitters Eric Chavez, Bobby Crosby, and Frank Thomas. Los Angeles catcher Mike Napoli is also on the disabled list with a shoulder injury and will miss this series.
