After six full, the A's have scored six full. The Angels, the #1 team in the division, have scored a mere third of that.

Brett Tomko, having reached the 100 pitch mark, was pulled from the game, and Craig Breslow came in, as Geren consulted his "Management by Numbers" playbook and followed the "If pitch count > or = 100, then replace pitcher with Breslow" rule.

But Breslow gave up a near-bomb to Kendry Morales, turning a 6-1 lead to a 6-2 contest. We'll hope that's the end of the nonsense, as the A's bullpen looks to run Tomko's record to 3-0 since joining the A's.

After three full innings, the A's lead 5-1 over the Angels, on the back of a 2-run home run by Scott Hairston, a 2-run single through the infield by Kurt Suzuki, and a sacrifice fly by Mr. Jack Cust. Meanwhile, Brett Tomko gave up his alloted solo home run, and is hoping to keep his streak going as a member of the green and gold.

Sometimes, a small sample size can be a baseball statistician's best friend. So is the case with tonight's A's hurler, Brett Tomko, who in his two starts for the A's after being designated for assignment by the Yankees in July has done everything he could to make his old pinstriped employers look a little silly. Having allowed only a single run over 11 innings, with opponents batting .235, Tomko is sporting a Jeff Gray-like 0.82 ERA, to go along with 9 K's against 3 walks. Before you throw the Small Sample Size Book (TM) at me, just think about how awesome that would be if he could, you know, go a full season with 35 starts with 200 innings? We're talking Cy Young in a landslide!

But the downside of a small sample size is that typically, there is regression to the mean. Looking to help Tomko regress to the mean are the "not quite in Los Angeles" Angels, who have surprisingly lost four of their last five contests and six of their last eight, seeing their lead in the AL West over the Texas Rangers shrink to four games. Looking to turn that around is tonight's batting lineup, which features six players batting over .300 (and one batting .299) - so it's quite possible they are capable of doing so.

The A's lineup, featuring one batter over .280 (Raj), and a first baseman batting .204 (Barton), who replaced a first baseman who was batting .193 (Giambi), will be facing Angels rookie Trevor Bell, who in limited time (small sample size?) has a 9.49 ERA and a 1-1 record, including his last start against the Blue Jays, when he unceremoniously left the game after only an inning and two-thirds, giving up six runs. So who knows what will happen? Practically the only guarantee is that Craig Breslow will probably come in from the bullpen at some point.

9th Inning drama thread (to be open for potential extras, of course)...

The A's, having never led in the game, are now knotted at 3-3 with the Rays, following an RBI single from Orlando Cabrera that plated Bobby Crosby. Hannahan, unclear what to do in his rare appearance on the bases, was unable to extend the lead to 4-3, so we head to the 9th frame with the game up for grabs.

Braden, though he pitched well, has left the game, and will gather a much-desired no-decision.

After five full innings, including a thunderstorm-related power outage, the A's and Rays are deadlocked at 2. Highlights thus far have included Braden's Ryan Sweeney impression to snag a failed bunt attempt, an RBI single by Adam Kennedy, and a sac fly by the aforementioned Sweeney. Despite the tie, Garza is racking up the K's, with 7, and has claimed Hannahan, Suzuki and Cust twice each.

Should the A's capture today's game, it will make for the season's first three-game win streak. Go A's!

More photos » by Jeff Chiu - AP

Dallas Braden has been feeling the pain of his last three starts.

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There's something pure about weekday baseball. And there's something refreshing about knowing the A's have put up a crooked number, not just in a single inning (or game, mind you), but in terms of the consecutive wins column. It's a rarity this year, as the team, as you know, has more than its fair share of disappointments. Yesterday, too, could have been slotted in that disappointment column, had it not been for the otherworldly levitating leapitude of one Ryan Sweeney who snatched victory from the jaws of what looked like an inevitable late-innings collapse on the part of Oakland.

But baseball is one game at a time, one day at a time, or so the platitudes tell me, which leads to this afternoon's matchup, featuring two pitchers going in opposite directions. The A's will post southpaw Dallas Braden, with his 3-5 record (including three straight losses), against the Rays' Matt Garza, who is 3-0 in his last four decisions, sporting a 4-2 record. Braden, who surprised us all by recovering from his being nailed by a line drive in the first inning during his start on May 10th, leads the team not just in fortitude, but ERA, wins and innings pitched.

As you may have already heard, lefty reliever Craig Breslow, acquired from the Twins, has joined the A's on their roster. To make room, OF Aaron Cunningham is headed down to Sacramento. On the pre-game show, Geren intimated Nomar could rejoin the club tomorrow, at which point a pitcher would likely be sent down.

We'll bring you the purity of weekday baseball from the decidedly unpure Tropicana Field, starting at 1:08 Pacific.