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Athletics-Indians Preview

Jul 2, 2009 - 7:23 PM By MATT BECKER STATS Senior Writer

Oakland (33-44) at Cleveland (31-49), 7:05 p.m. EDT

It's been a tough first three months of the season for both the Oakland Athletics and Cleveland Indians. Although neither team is likely to make a playoff push over the final three months, the Athletics are at least starting to show some signs of life.

Oakland looks for its third win in four games when it opens a nine-game road trip Friday night against the Indians, who try to avoid their sixth consecutive loss.

The A's (33-44) arrive in Cleveland after taking two of three home games against AL Central-leading Detroit, including a 5-1 victory Wednesday. Oakland, which had lost five straight games before the Tigers series, has scored 25 runs in its last five games after totaling 12 in its previous five.

"It's a great turnaround," said Wednesday's winning pitcher Dallas Braden. "This is the kind of baseball we know we can play."

The A's still haven't won consecutive games since June 19 and 20 at San Diego, but are hoping a pair of two-run homers from Jason Giambi and Jack Cust on Wednesday are a sign of things to come from the slumping sluggers.

Giambi, the 2000 AL MVP, is batting a league-low .199 and was in a 2-for-28 stretch before the homer.

Cust hasn't been much better. He leads the team with 14 home runs, but is batting only .225 and is 6 for 35 (.171) with 16 strikeouts in his last 10 games.

"Hopefully we'll start to get hot," Giambi said. "Hopefully it's coming around. I've been kind of waiting."

While Oakland's offense appears to be turning things around, Cleveland's slump continues.

The Indians (31-49) are fourth in the majors in runs scored (405), but have plated only 13 while batting only .195 during their five-game losing skid.

Three-time All-Star Grady Sizemore is to blame for some of the team's offensive woes. He is 0 for 11 in his last three games and batting .219 on the season for Cleveland, which is a major league-worst 2-13 since June 15.

"We're in a little bit of a rut right now," manager Eric Wedge said after Wednesday's 6-2 loss to the Chicago White Sox. "We have to make sure we come in here expecting good things to happen."

In Friday's opener, Wedge will give the ball to David Huff (3-3, 6.26 ERA), who tries to bounce back from a rough outing.

After allowing four hits in eight shutout innings of a 5-4 win over Pittsburgh on June 23, Huff was tagged for seven runs and nine hits in five innings of an 8-1 loss to Cincinnati on Sunday. It marked the most runs yielded by the rookie left-hander since his May 27 major league debut, when he gave up seven in a 7-5 loss to Tampa Bay.

This will be Huff's first career appearance against Oakland, which counters with another rookie in Trevor Cahill (5-6, 4.23).

Cahill yielded seven runs and eight hits - including four home runs - in 3 2-3 innings of Saturday's 11-9 loss to Colorado - a step back after he'd gone 3-2 with a 2.44 ERA in his previous seven starts.

The 21-year-old right-hander has permitted seven runs three times this season, but bounced back nicely the other two times, allowing three runs over 13 1-3 innings in the subsequent outings.

Cahill has never faced Cleveland, which went 5-4 against the A's last season.