When the Oakland A’s meet the Rangers at Texas later today, they will be looking to add some more distance between them and the rest of the AL West. Seattle is done, but the Rangers and Angels have a shot. For the Rangers, it has to be go time right now. There’s only 31 games left in the season. They are 66-65 and 10 games behind the A’s, who are 74-55, in the loss column.

Dan Haren will be getting the start for the Oakland A’s. He;s got a 3.79 ERA and is in the top tier, ERA wise, in the American League. However, his ERA balloons to 4.76 on the road. The bullpen is not doing a great job in relief of Haren. They are giving up a run every two innings pitched on average. There’s also the fact that he’s 2-2 with a 4.71 ERA when facing the Rangers.

For the Texas Rangers, Vicente Padilla will be pitching. He pitches better on the road. In Texas, he has a 5.01 ERA. He’s 6-3 in 13 starts there. The bullpen has done a pretty good job when reliving Padilla. They give up just one run every 3-4 innings on average in relief. In his last start against the A’s, which was at Oakland, he shut them down. He went 7 solid innings and didn’t allow a single run.

The Oakland A’s are -110 today and the Texas Rangers are -105. Oakland has won the first two games of this three game series. Texas is looking to save one at home. Oakland won the first game 9-3 and the second game 5-3. Texas needs Padilla to go deep into the game to give the overworked bullpen a rest. The Oakland bullpen has been pretty rested. They worked 2.1 innings last night and just 2/3rds of an inning the game before.