Red Sox Turn to Aaron Cook to Cool Off Red-Hot Wild Card-Leading Athletics

The Athletics welcome the Red Sox to Oakland in the middle of a hot streak, having won six straight. The Sox, on the other hand? Not so much.

Boston enters on the heels of a series (and season) sweep by the Los Angeles Angels, and will turn to Aaron Cook to stop the bleeding and turn the team back in the right direction. To do so, he'll have to improve on his 5.14 ERA in his last five starts.

Leading the charge for the Red Sox will be Scott Podsednik, with Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury backing him up in quick succession. James Loney, who hit cleanup on Thursday night and responded with a home run, is dropped to fifth in the order on Friday with righty Brandon McCarthy on the mound for the A's.

McCarthy is making his fifth start since returning from a shoulder injury, and has shown no ill effects in his time back. He'll hope to get the offense he needs from Coco Crisp, Josh Reddick and some other familiar faces.

Check out the lineups for both teams below.

Boston Red Sox (62-70)
Scott Podsednik, LF
Dustin Pedroia, 2B
Jacoby Ellsbury, CF 
Cody Ross, RF
James Loney, 1B
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, C
Mike Aviles, DH
Pedro Ciriaco, 3B
Jose Iglesias, SS

Aaron Cook, P

Athletics (73-57)
Coco Crisp, CF
Stephen Drew, SS
Josh Reddick, RF
Yoenis Cespedes, LF
Brandon Moss, 1B
Jonny Gomes, DH
Josh Donaldson, 3B
George Kottaras, C
Cliff Pennington, 2B 

Brandon McCarthy, P