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Athletics-Indians Preview

Aug 25, 2010 - 3:31 AM By JEFF MEZYDLO STATS Senior Writer

Oakland (61-62) at Cleveland (50-74), 7:05 p.m. EDT

Facing Trevor Cahill likely won't make it easy for the Cleveland Indians to solve their recent problems at the plate.

The Oakland ace, however, hopes to avoid another rough outing in Cleveland on Wednesday night when he tries to help the Athletics to a 2-0 start to their 10-game road trip.

Cleveland (50-75) managed five hits during a 5-0 loss to Oakland on Tuesday. The Indians have totaled three runs and are batting .147 during a four-game skid.

They have been outscored 37-12 and shut out four times while going 2-5 versus Oakland (62-62) this season.

"We're scuffling overall, whether there's two outs, one out, no outs, we're scuffling offensively," Indians manager Manny Acta said.

Trying to break out of that slump could be tough against Cahill (13-5, 2.54 ERA), who has a 0.90 ERA while winning four of five starts.

"I'm just trying to throw strikes," the 22-year-old Cahill said. "Baseball's kind of a streaky game and I'm just on the positive side of a streak right now. I can't really attribute it to anything."

The right-hander had allowed one earned run over his previous four starts before giving up three in eight innings of a 4-3 win over Tampa Bay on Thursday.

"He's very talented, very smart, very even-keeled," Oakland manager Bob Geren said. "He doesn't let things bother him and it works to his advantage."

That maturity could help Cahill forget about his only previous appearance in Cleveland. He allowed eight runs - five earned - and walked four in 3 2-3 innings of a 15-3 loss July 3, 2009. That matchup, though, was against a more potent lineup than the one he will face in this contest.

After Gio Gonzalez pitched seven strong innings in the series opener, Cahill looks to extend Oakland's streak of 22 consecutive outings of at least six innings by a starter. The A's have allowed five runs or fewer in all those games, the longest such streak by an AL team since the 1989 California Angels.

Oakland, however, is only 11-11 during that span as it has scored an average of 3.3.

"We get some more offense, we can blow right past that (.500) mark," Geren said.

Coco Crisp, Jack Cust and Jeff Larish each connected Tuesday as the A's snapped a 26-game streak without multiple homers.

Crisp, who broke into the majors with Cleveland in 2002, went 3 for 5 and is batting .391 with three homers and 10 RBIs in his last 16 games.

Oakland will face Mitch Talbot (8-10, 4.23) for the second time Wednesday. The right-hander gave up three runs and four walks in 5 1-3 innings of a 3-0 loss to the A's on July 2.

The right-hander is 0-4 with a 5.29 ERA in seven starts since winning at Cincinnati on June 27. Talbot allowed three runs and four walks in 4 2-3 innings of a 7-3 win at Kansas City on Thursday.

Indians right fielder Shin-Soo Choo is 7 for 19 against the A's this season after going 1 for 4 on Monday.