Manager Bob Melvin laughed when I asked about Hideki Matsui already being back out of the No. 3 spot that Melvin had said he was putting the DH in regularly.
"I should have come out here with a shoe in my mouth," Melvin said with a smile.
Matsui is batting cleanup today, on his 37th birthday, because Josh Willingham is out with a sore Achilles tendon, the same one that bothered him earlier in the trip. He'll have tomorrow's offday to rest it to and will be back batting cleanup on Tuesday, with Matsui returning to the No. 3 spot. Melvin said Willingham could pinch hit today.
With tomorrow's day off, Melvin is shuffling the rotation a bit, moving Trevor Cahill ahead of Josh Outman. Cahill will go Tuesday against Kansas City, Outman on Wednesday and Gio Gonzalez on Thursday. Graham Godfrey will get another start this week, but the day hasn't been decided. I presume he's getting in a little extra work with A's pitching coach Ron Romanick, which should be valuable since Godfrey wasn't in big-league camp this spring.
The A's are doing something today I haven't seen them do for eons - they're taking infield before the game. Melvin was clear that he'd already planned it and had mentioned it to the team Thursday; it's not punishment for last night's three errors.
Melvin's feeling: When the team hits in the indoor cage before the game rather than on the field, as is often the case with day games after night games, he doesn't want the first ball hit to an infielder to come in the game. He wants them to have taken some grounders already.
So this will be a semi-regular thing. You almost never see it anymore, though it used to be the norm. I know Ron Washington has the Rangers take infield some days, and the Japanese reporters say it's a daily thing in Japan.
The Japanese reporters presented Matsui with a big, beautiful cake this morning. I'll be tweeting (@susanslusser) photos of Matsui blowing out the candles later when the Japanese media gives me the OK - they don't want me scooping them before they can get their own photos published in Japan - because of the time difference, none of their photos would be put up on their own websites for quite a while.
They bought the cake, and it's now in the press box and it's delicious, so I'll honor the request. Happy birthday, Godzilla!
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