text: A's flip starts for Jeff Samardzija, Scott Kazmir – The Mercury News
  A's flip starts for Jeff Samardzija, Scott Kazmir
  ANAHEIM — The A's tweaking of their starting rotation continued unabated Thursday when they said they were switching Scott Kazmir and Jeff Samardzija over the weekend.
  Samardzija will pitch Saturday instead of Sunday against the Angels and Kazmir will move back a day to Sunday.
  Manager Bob Melvin said the belief was that Kazmir, who has thrown 158 innings in 26 starts this year, needs a bit of extra time off. At the same time the move would break up the A's two lefty starters so Jon Lester and Kazmir don't pitch on back-to-back days.
  Lester is pitching Friday.
  Kazmir threw a total of 163 innings last year with Cleveland and its Triple-A Columbus club. He hasn't thrown more than 165 innings in a single season since 2007 when he threw 207 innings for Tampa Bay.
  "The idea is to give Kaz a little more time off," Melvin said. "It's been a while since he's pitched this much, and Shark (Samardzija) feels real good right now."
  The A's are 0-3 in August when Lester and Kazmir have faced the same team in back-to-back starts, which probably figures into the A's calculation.
  The A's bolstered their bullpen depth Thursday just ahead of an important four-game series with the first-place Angels, recalling right-handed reliever Evan Scribner from Triple-A Sacramento. Oakland normally carries seven relievers, but had been at six since Sean Doolittle went on the disabled list.
  To make room on the roster for Scribner, the A's sent Wednesday night's starter in Houston, Drew Pomeranz, to Class-A Beloit, Wisconsin, the same destination to which the A's sent first baseman Nate Freiman Wednesday.
  By sending Pomeranz and Freiman to Beloit, which will not make the Midwest League playoffs, the A's can bring both back on Tuesday. Sending them to Triple-A Sacramento, which is headed to the Pacific Coast League playoffs would mean both men would have to stay down for 10 days.
  This is the fourth promotion to the big leagues for Scribner, who began the season on the A's opening day roster. He was 4-1 with a 3.06 ERA at Sacramento with 16 saves for the River Cats. With Oakland he is 1-0 with a 1.69 ERA in six relief appearances.
  Catcher John Jaso is eligible to come off the 7-day concussion disabled list Sunday, but he's unlikely to do so.
  Melvin said Jaso is no longer having the kind of headaches that led to him going on the DL, but the catcher hasn't begun any baseball activity.
  Lefty Eric O'Flaherty, who got his first big league save Wednesday, has a pragmatic view of No. 1. He had a 5-3 lead over the Astros, but Chris Carter homered with no one on to cut the lead to 5-4.
  "The only thing that matters is that he didn't hit a two-run homer," O'Flaherty said. "He didn't, so I did what I needed to do."
  In half a decade with the Braves O'Flaherty threw "all the time in close games in the eighth and ninth innings," he said.
  "So this wasn't really any different than that," the lefty said. "I've pitched in plenty of tight games, and this didn't feel any different than that except that I didn't hand the ball off to somebody else when I was done."
  Fernando Abad wasn't down over having his almost five-month streak of not allowed an inherited runner to score end when Robbie Grossman of the Astros hit an end-of-the-bat single Wednesday in the seventh.
  "It was nice, but I wasn't thinking about that kind of record when I was out there," Abad said Thursday. "I don't ever want to let one score, but it happens sometimes."
  Grossman broke his bat with the single.
  "It was a good pitch away, and I broke his bat," Abad said. "It was some good hitting on his part. I tip my cap to him. But we won the game."
  Shortstop Jed Lowrie took full batting practice Thursday after hitting successfully without pain in the batting cage Wednesday.
  The next stop for him could be an injury rehabilitation stint this weekend if he gets through batting practice.