Notes: Anderson sore, no MRI results yet

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DETROIT -- Late Wednesday night A's starting pitcher Brett Anderson underwent and MRI on his strained right oblique. The team doesn't have the results. Right after Anderson returned from the hospital he detailed how the injury occurred and how his side feels. The A's are optimistic that he won't have to miss much time."We don't have the results from the MRI but he's sore," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "It tells me there is a good chance he won't make his next start, beyond that we are not sure."
REWIND: Anderson exits game early with oblique strain'Fluke injury'
Anderson is 4-2 with a 2.57 ERA in six starts since returning from "Tommy John" surgery. He has never had an oblique injury before. He described the situation as frustrating after recently returning from 14 months on the DL while recovering from his left elbow injury. "Its pretty disheartening the way Ive been throwing," Anderson said early Thursday morning. "To come back after surgery and six starts into it have some other kind of fluke injury that I dont really know how it happened."The plan in place, if Anderson indeed cannot pitch, is that Travis Blackley will pitch on Saturday in New York and Dan Straily will take Anderson's spot Monday in Texas. The A's had already decided to start Blackley in New York prior to Anderson's injury. Blackley is 4-3 with a 3.97 ERA in 12 starting assignments for the A's this season.RELATED: Brett Anderson game logs
"I'm psyched about it," Blackley said on Wednesday night. "It's good to know you can be trusted and to take the reigns when needed. I'm trying to treat it like any other game and try to get outs.""Travis Blackley has done a terrific job for us in a number of roles," Melvin added. "We have a lot of confidence in him. We have a lot of confidence in the rest of our young starters as well." Melvin noted that Blackley, a left-handed pitcher, might be a better option in New York because of all the left-handed hitters and the short porch in right field. If Dan Straily, a right-handed pitcher, takes Anderson's spot on Monday in Texas, he likes the match up because the Rangers have a righty-heavy lineup. "If Brett doesn't pitch we are better going in that route anyway," Melvin explained. "That was one of the factors before Brett even got hurt. I think we've been pretty consistent in trying to match up the best we can whether it's with the lineup or the pitchers."It appears that Straily might have been on the verge of losing his spot in the starting rotation before Anderson strained his oblique. Straily is 2-1 with a 4.13 ERA in five starts. The A's have won four of his five starts, but he has allowed eight home runs and New York has a lineup full of power hitters. -- Yoenis Cespedes has been playing through a bone bruise on the bottom of his right foot. Melvin says he isn't sure how the injury occurred but the young outfielder has had been bothered by it since the home stand. It doesn't appear to be a serious issue. Cespedes played center field on Wednesday night. Expect him to DH a bit more lately until it subsides. "He'll be day to day as far as playing the outfield," Melvin said. "It was bothering him some yesterday but he knew with Coco out if he could do it he'd go out and play."-- Coco Crisp has made progress with his pink eye issues. He has a better chance to play in New York on Friday. The A's are 62-43 when Crisp starts and 22-21 when he doesn't. Their offense doesn't seem to be clicking without Crisp. Here's a look at Melvin's lineup card for Thursday. There are several modifications. Oakland Athletics (84-64) lineupCoco Crisp, CF
Stephen Drew, SS
Yoenis Cespedes, LF
Seth Smith, DH
Chris Carter, 1B
Josh Reddick, RF
Josh Donaldson, 3B
Derek Norris, C
Cliff Pennington, 2B
The lineup looks this way mainly because Crisp is out. There may be more reasons behind the slight shuffle but Melvin didn't want to tip his hand."At times we just look at a little change of scenery it's not a huge change there's actually a couple reasons that I just won't go into today, maybe a little later," Melvin said. "Same cast members for the most part." The tarp was on the field all night in Detroit and it was raining up until noon. The tarp is now off the field and it looks like the game will start on time.

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