00:004-0-5 start, the Houston Astros with a decent start to the season going up against the Athletics in
00:05Sacramento here, Craig.
00:07Overnight, slight favorite for the Athletics.
00:10Now I'm seeing slight favorite for the Houston Astros with McCullers, who was actually really good in his first start.
00:16Lopez, the lefty, going against McCullers, and a total.
00:18Love to see it.
00:19It's Coors on the West Coast, Craig.
00:20That's double digits out of 10.
00:24Jordan Alvarez, Jose Altuve, two of the best hitters right now in the American League.
00:28I was actually tinkering with the idea of maybe the A's today.
00:32You know, I was looking at this, trying to find a path to take the A's, and I just couldn't
00:36do it.
00:37I couldn't come up with it.
00:38They're 2-6 to start the season.
00:41I got to tell you, Donnie, it's going to be some pressure on the A's this season.
00:44And especially when you consider that they signed a couple of free agents, but they gave out a lot of
00:50contract extensions, regardless of how much money extra that is out of the ownership's pocket.
00:56They're looking toward Las Vegas in a couple of years.
00:58The A's can't lose 100 this year.
01:00You know, Donnie, like they got to be a little bit better than that.
01:03And they're off to a brutal start.
01:05It is a tough place to pitch in.
01:07Lopez, who is not going to strike out the world, will pitch for the A's today.
01:12My guess is Houston probably scores some runs.
01:14As I mentioned, offensively, their stars are off to a good start.
01:17But what really has me perplexed a little bit is the pitcher on the mound for the Astros, who is
01:23Lance McCullers.
01:24Just because the start that he had his first time out, which was vintage McCullers.
01:29And when I say vintage, we're talking about like 2021.
01:32It's been a really long time since we've seen him pitch well.
01:36I can't back that train again today.
01:38It's a complete pass for me on this game.
01:42Yeah, it's interesting.
01:42You're right about this because Lance McCullers, the start of his career, hey, this is going to be another one
01:46of those aces that they found down in Houston.
01:47The injuries just derailed him.
01:49But it was really good to see that first start.
01:50He's been great to start the season.
01:52We'll see if it does turn over today.
01:53But I'm also improved or, excuse me, important looking at here at Jacob Lopez.
01:57The lefty on the mound last year was very good against lefties.
02:00But a lot to be desired, Craig, in that ballpark against right-handed batters.
02:03A 205 ISO through 301 batters he faced last year and a 346 weighted on base percentage, but still had
02:09a pretty good K rate of around 27%.
02:11If those right-handed bats can stay hot today for Houston, maybe they can do some damage.
02:15And finally, Craig, one of the games we talk about, 77 degrees at first pitch here with a light wind
02:20blowing up the center field.
02:21A true hitter's ballpark there.
02:23And Craig is also correct about this.
02:25When you are a business and looking to change and move to a new city, you want to sell tickets?
02:30You better give them some superstars and some guys that are going to be in town that they can actually
02:33know about before they get there.
02:35Very important season here.
02:37Seasons, I should say, for the Vegas slash Sacramento slash Oakland Athletics year.
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