![\"Mlb5XtraHl\"](\"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/wp-content\/Mlb5XtraHl.png\" "\\"Mlb5XtraHl\\"")
Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s MLB game on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra is a clash from the American League as the Oakland A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Chicago White Sox finish up their three-game series at U.S. Cellular Field.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\nToday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s MLB game on BBC 5 Live Sports Extra is a clash from the American League as the Oakland A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and Chicago White Sox finish up their three-game series at U.S. Cellular Field.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nat Coombs will be in the presenting chair once again, while Josh Chetwynd should be back after missing last week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s show due to the birth of his second child, Becca.\u00c2\u00a0 First pitch is set for 19.05 and the show begins at 19.00.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
The White Sox come into today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game with just a half-game lead over the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both teams are in good form, with the Twins having won seven straight and the White Sox putting together a five-game winning streak until that was snapped yesterday by the A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, the A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s victory was the first time in thirteen home games that the White Sox walked off the field without celebrating a win.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chicago\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s General Manager Kenny Williams is known for pulling off big trades and he was expected to be active prior to last night\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s non-waiver trade deadline.\u00c2\u00a0 While they did acquire starting pitcher Edwin Jackson on Friday, the long-rumoured deal to acquire slugger Adam Dunn didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take place and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perhaps a slight feeling of disappointment among White Sox fans that they were unable to add an extra bat to their roster.<\/p>\n
The A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had a very quiet trade deadline and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s indicative of their current position.\u00c2\u00a0 Although they are in second place in the AL West, they are 8.5 games behind the Texas Rangers and few expect them to make a serious challenge for a playoff berth.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oakland have been hit hard by injuries yet again, the latest example being the $10m gamble on Ben Sheets finally unravelling this week as he heads for season-ending surgery, but they have a good group of young talent and affordable Major Leaguers.\u00c2\u00a0 General Manager Billy Beane believes that the current A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will only improve next year and with a few key additions over the offseason, made possible by the large salaries of Sheets and Eric Chavez coming off the books, 2011 could see the A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s back in genuine contention for the first time since reaching the American League Championship Series in 2006.<\/p>\n
Today’s game<\/strong><\/p>\n The series is tied 1-1 heading into today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s game.\u00c2\u00a0 The White Sox took the series opener 6-1 with Lucas Harrell earning a win in his Major League debut, but the A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fought back yesterday as Dallas Braden pitched a complete game in a 6-2 victory.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Gavin Floyd and Gio Gonzalez are the scheduled starters and both have been in excellent form of late.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Floyd had a 7.00 ERA after his first eight starts, but he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s allowed only eighteen earned runs in his thirteen starts since then, resulting in a 1.90 ERA over that span.\u00c2\u00a0 Floyd is a righty with a typical starting pitcher arsenal at his disposal: a low nineties fastball topping out at 94 MPH, an 87 MPH slider, a good curve and an occasional change-up.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Gonzalez is one of a number of impressive young starters that the A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s have amassed in recent years, either through draft picks or while trading away their best Major League talent.\u00c2\u00a0 He was actually acquired from the White Sox back in January 2008 in a trade for outfielder Nick Swisher and his trade history makes for interesting reading.\u00c2\u00a0 He was drafted by the White Sox in 2004, traded to the Phillies in a deal to acquire potential future Hall-of-Famer Jim Thome and then reacquired by the White Sox in a trade that sent Aaron Rowand to Philadelphia.\u00c2\u00a0 Gonzalez was one of two pitchers that the Phillies sent the White Sox\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s way in that deal.\u00c2\u00a0 The other? His opponent today, Gavin Floyd.<\/p>\n Gonzalez made his Major League debut in 2008 and was inconsistent in 2009, but this season he is showing why the White Sox clearly thought so highly of him.\u00c2\u00a0 He can still be inconsistent at times and needs to reduce the number of walks he dishes out (4.2 per nine innings so far this season), but everything is going in the right direction as he gains more experience and develops his craft at the Big League level.\u00c2\u00a0 With a low nineties fastball, a decent changeup and an excellent sweeping curveball, he has the potential to develop into a very good Major League starter.<\/p>\n Unfortunately we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not able to run a live blog this week, but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re looking at doing one next week instead.\u00c2\u00a0 I will definitely be tuning in though.\u00c2\u00a0 Tonight\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s show will be a meeting of two good teams and two in-form starters, with plenty of time to discuss all of the trade deadline moves as well.\u00c2\u00a0 It should be a great show, available on DAB radio and via digital TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and White Sox play the rubber match of their three-game series on BBC radio this evening. Coverage starts at 19.00 with first pitch set for 19.05<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[226,232,225,112,163,553,236,128],"class_list":["post-8728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball-coverage","category-mlb-2","tag-5-live-sports-extra","tag-baseball-on-the-bbc","tag-bbc","tag-chicago-white-sox","tag-josh-chetwynd","tag-mlb-2","tag-nat-coombs","tag-oakland-as"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8728"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8750,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728\/revisions\/8750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}