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Due to a totally unexpected development that occurred earlier today, Oakland has gone from a projected Free pick all the way up to an actual Premium service underdog move. It was back in the early 1970’s when Dick Williams led the Athletics to a pair of World Series titles and he died earlier today at the age of 82. Even though he managed for a myriad of organizations during a long career, Williams was enshrined in the Hall of Fame with an OAKLAND cap so tonight’s visiting squad has an “angel in the outfield” so to speak. There is actually another dramatic development regarding Oakland who for the first time in more than 2 weeks has outfielder Josh Willingham back in the starting lineup. When sustaining an achillies injury back on the 18th of last month, the A’s ended up losing their RBI leader (42) to the disabled list. Not only is Willingham back in the lineup tonight, he just happens to be Oakland CLEANUP hitter which energizes the entire offensive attack. Oakland may not come close to matching Texas in average offensive run production, but their pitching staff has the best combined ERA (3.05) in the entire American League. After a long stint on the disabled list, veteran Rich Harden finally was able to pitch about one week ago which produced a WINNING result (6 strikeouts in 6 innings of work). That victory marked the first “quality” start for the oft-injured Harden since August of a year ago when he donned a Texas uniform. Not only does Harden have special motivation tonight, one could argue that this is a “make or break” four-game series for Oakland who with a sweep could pull to within 4 games of the top spot in the American League West division. In an unusual statistic that has held up for the entire season, Texas is actually a disastrous investment (1-7 at HOME) following a four-game stretch where the team came out on the winning side 3 different times
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