Probable Starters for Oct. 10, 2006 (All Time Eastern)
8:05
DET - Robertson N.* (13-13, 3.84)
OAK - Zito B.* (16-10, 3.83)

Probable Starters for Oct. 11, 2006 (All Time Eastern)
8:05
DET - Verlander J. (17-9, 3.63)
OAK - Loaiza E. (11-9, 4.89)

Probable Starters for Oct. 13, 2006 (All Time Eastern)
8:05
OAK - Haren D. (14-13, 4.12)
DET - Rogers K.* (17-8, 3.84)


OAKLAND, Calif. - The Oakland A’s today selected infielder Mark Kiger from Double-A Midland and added him to their American League Championship Series roster to replaced the injured Mark Ellis. Ellis fractured his right index finger last Wednesday in his ninth inning at bat against Joe Nathan in Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Minnesota.


Q. When you take a look at Detroit, are you more impressed by the starting rotation they bring out or the guys who come out of the bullpen, and why?
KEN MACHA: I'll answer that question yes (laughter). They led the league in pitching by a pretty good distance. You bring in Rodney, Zumaya out of the bullpen, not to mention their
closer, much like Duchscherer was for us. Those guys can do the same thing. They can close that gap, 6th, 7th, 8th inning and turn it over to Jones. They're impressive all the way through with their pitching. A little connection here, their pitching coach is one of my best friends in baseball. I'm glad he got this opportunity to show people what he can do. He's a great guy, and we worked
together when I was with the Angels. As a matter of fact, we roomed together. I'm happy for him he's gotten in this position. I hope he's got bad instructions for these guys this week (laughter).

Q. You could have been traded in the off season; you could have been traded at the trade deadline this year. What does it mean to you that you're still here and getting the ball for the Oakland A's still, maybe leaving in the off season. But what does it mean to you to get this start after all that stuff?
BARRY ZITO: Yeah, it's great. There was always speculation for the last three seasons now of possible trades. That's just something that -- that's how baseball is. That's how the business is.
I always said, until I'm not wearing white spikes, don't come up to me, don't ask me what I think, because like I always say, it's like asking a guy, well, you might get in a car accident today
when you go home; how do you feel about that? I don't know, I'll deal with it when it happens.

Q. I know you've said before that you don't really believe in momentum, that each game is dependent upon the pitching effort that you get or each club gets. Is there something that you can take from beating the Yankees or what your team went through in that series and use it going into this series against Oakland?
JIM LEYLAND: No, not really. I've been preaching that for years, but nobody believes me because I keep answering it about momentum. Momentum is as good as your next day's pitcher. So that's history. The sweep for the A's against the Twins is history, and the great series win for us against the Yankees is history. Now this is a new chapter, which is what the playoffs is all about. Not only the series, but each game is a new chapter.

Q. A lot of people say that there are some similarities between your ball club and the A's. Can you touch on that? And also the challenges of pitching to these guys?
NATE ROBERTSON: Yeah, there is very similar match-ups in the sense that they have very good starting pitching, their bullpen is great, the consistency that they've had all year, for us, as well, over the long haul. They're not a team that's going to homer you to death. Even though we have some guys that have some big home run numbers, we're not necessarily that kind of a team, either. They've got a couple guys that can drive the ball out of the ballpark, as well as we do. They've got some table setters, and playing the game right, they do that as well as anybody else, doing all the little things. It is a similar match-up. The big thing is they have a nice little righty-lefty combination, too, Kotsay and Chavez and a couple switch hitters that can flip around to both sides, so it's a balanced line-up, as well.