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It's another expat returning to face his old team tonight - albeit slightly different, in that Greg Smith never actually got as far as the Diamondbacks. He reached Tucson in 2007, but was then traded to the A's as part of the Haren deal. He's done pretty well over there in his rookie season, with a 2.84 ERA over his first ten starts, though he has hit some bumps since. In his last three starts and 16.1 innings, he has allowed twelve earned runs on 17 hits and ten walks. The wildness may be something we can work with.
It'll be interesting to see whether our previous ownership of Smith - and, presumably, a fairly decent knowledge of his pitching repertoire - translates into any help for our hitters. Certainly didn't seem to help the A's when they were facing Dan Haren last night, but a win today would be huge. We have not won a single series this year against a team currently above ..500, and this would be a great rebound after the disaster in the opening game. With it being a day game, I'll be in stealth mode, except for lunchtime. :-)