Justin Duchscherer makes his first start since 2003 tonight, facing Paul Byrd and the Cleveland Indians. I’m sure Duke will be a Man of our Times, and put to rest any thoughts that the plan to make him a starter was just some sort of Misunderstanding. But let’s hope Duke isn’t Alone Tonight as the only A’s player who does anything well. Please Don’t Ask where the A’s offense has been; they’ve been missing somewhere Behind the Lines. They need to Turn It On Again, and keep going forward, not get stuck in some offensive Cul-De-Sac that goes nowhere. Otherwise, Duke’s Travels will just end up forgotten in a Heathaze of Athletics losses. Here’s hoping Duke’s End is more uplifting than that.

Indians at Oakland, 7:05pm

The A’s only managed three hits and no walks last night (or even last night) against Daisuke Matsuzaka & Co. Unlike the opener in Japan, Dice-K was on his game, throwing strikes with multiple pitches. When a team relies on the walk as much as the A’s do, you can go a long way toward beating them simply by throwing the ball over the plate. Throw strikes with some zip on it, and the A’s are putty in your hands. Except for a lone Jack Cust home run, the A’s were simply overpowered last night, despite another good pitching effort by Joe Blanton.

Hopefully, it will be the Red Sox’ turn to be overpowered this afternoon when Rich Harden takes to the mound. Will Travis Buck ever get a hit? I’d be concerned about that, but then I saw that David Ortiz is hitless this year, too. Can that possibly last another day? If the A’s can escape a four-game series with Boston without being hurt by Big Papi, they should consider themselves very fortunate.

Red Sox at Oakland, 12:35pm

I’ve never really done game threads before, mostly because my computer and biggest TV were in different rooms.  If I wanted to surf and watch TV at the same time, I had to watch on a teeny 15" TV, and use my wife’s computer.  Now I have a nice new big HDTV and a slick laptop with a wireless network, so I’m good to go, if y’all are.  We got a decent amount of traffic during the two 3AM games, so if we don’t gather any interest at the 7pm hour, I guess my demographics consist of more vampires than I thought.

Red Sox at Oakland, 7:05pm