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Indians-Athletics Preview

Apr 23, 2010 - 6:21 AM By KATE HEDLIN STATS Writer

Cleveland (6-8) at Oakland (9-7), 10:05 p.m. EDT

Cleveland's Jake Westbrook and Oakland's Justin Duchscherer are working their way back from injuries that kept them sidelined for all of 2009.

Each pitcher walked away from his last start with reason for optimism.

Westbrook and Duchscherer will square off Friday to open a three-game series between the Indians and Athletics.

Westbrook (0-1, 5.40 ERA) is winless since beating the Angels on April 8, 2008, but is coming off one of his best outings since undergoing elbow surgery that kept him sidelined last year.

The right-hander, who won 44 games from 2004-06, pitched seven innings against the White Sox on Saturday, allowing two runs and five hits in a 3-2 win. The Indians (7-8) had lost his previous two starts.

"You can tell he's feeling good," manager Manny Acta told the Indians' official web site. "You can tell he's over the hump with his injury."

Westbrook has won his last five decisions against Oakland (10-7), posting a 2.34 ERA over those six starts. He has not faced the Athletics since 2007.

It's been a similar journey for Duchscherer (1-0, 2.41), a former All-Star who missed last season due to an elbow injury and clinical depression. After pitching 7 1-3 scoreless innings against Seattle on April 12, he gave up two unearned runs in 5 2-3 innings of a 4-3 win over Baltimore on Saturday. He did not factor in the decision.

"I'm still not quite physically 100 percent," he told the Athletics' official web site. "I'm still fighting it, but I felt like I stayed in the game long enough to keep us in there."

The right-hander went 1-1 with a 1.54 ERA in two starts against the Indians in 2008. He's also made nine career relief appearances versus Cleveland.

Oakland snapped a three-game losing streak Thursday by beating the New York Yankees 4-2 in an eventful finale of a three-game series.

Kurt Suzuki hit a three-run homer, but also hit into a triple play in the sixth inning. The game also included a spat between Alex Rodriguez and Oakland starter Dallas Braden, who was upset when the Yankees star cut across the mound after Robinson Cano fouled off a pitch during the sixth inning.

"I'm not really a speck on that guy's radar but he'll know after today that it might not be a good idea to run across the mound when I'm out there," Braden said.

The Athletics have had few problems recently when the Indians have come to town, winning 11 of the last 13 home meetings in this series including a four-game sweep last September.

After dropping the first two games of its series in Minnesota, Cleveland won 8-1 on Thursday to avoid a sweep. The Indians had six doubles to help them match their highest scoring output of the season.

Andy Marte made the most of his start at third base, going 2 for 4 with a homer and three RBIs after entering the game 1 for 8 on the season.

"I know that at the end of the season that the runs are going to be there and that our offense is going to be there," said Acta, whose club mustered one run and 12 hits in its first two games at Target Field.

Cleveland totaled 11 runs in last season's four losses at Oakland.