The A's announced a shuffling in their upcoming starting rotation, with Daniel Gossett being called up from Triple-A to start Wednesday at Baltimore and Sean Manaea being pushed back to get some extra rest.
Following Thursday's day off, Kendall Graveman will now take the ball in Friday's series opener against Texas at the Coliseum, with Manaea going Saturday. That gives Manaea three extra days of rest from his originally scheduled turn Wednesday. The lefty has seen his fastball velocity diminish in recent starts, even though he had better results Friday at Houston, when he went six innings and gave up three runs.
Gossett was sent down to Nashville on Aug. 3 because the A's had an upcoming day off in the schedule and they wanted him to keep pitching on turn in the minors. He's coming off back-to-back strong starts in the minors, striking out 16 with just four earned runs over 12 innings.
Inserting Gossett into the rotation will temporarily give the A's six starters and also provide a little extra rest for Paul Blackburn, who left Tuesday's start against Baltimore in the fifth inning after he was struck on the right wrist/hand area by a line drive. X-rays afterward showed no fracture, and Blackburn appeared visibly relieved by that as he addressed reporters in Baltimore after the A's 6-4 win.
"It's definitely sore, but I got X-rays and they were negative, so that's good," Blackburn said. "But it's definitely sore. I'm just glad it's not broken. When I was out there, I couldn't move my hand. I couldn't squeeze."
He said he was hopeful of being able to make his next start but did not know the chances of that.
