The Oakland A’s have a doubleheader Saturday, but they aren’t going to let that add stress to their pitching staff in the final days before the postseason begins. The team announced that they’re calling up Paul Blackburn to start the second game of the twin-bill.
This is the second time Blackburn has been called up this year, but he didn’t make it into a game in his first stint as an emergency depth arm. This time he’ll definitely play, marking his first appearance in the majors since last September.
The right-hander has appeared in each of the last three seasons for Oakland, but his results haven’t been consistent enough to stick long-term yet — and it hasn’t helped that there have been some injury troubles mixed in throughout.