There are threats of rain throughout the afternoon here in Detroit, where Trevor Cahill and Justin Verlander take the mound in the series finale. Mark Ellis gets the day off today, with Adam Rosales playing second base for the A’s. … After Max Scherzer took it to Oakland yesterday, you wouldn’t expect a much easier challenge with Verlander, last year’s American League strikeout king.

We’ll cut to the chase with the lineups:

A’s: Davis CF, Barton 1B, Sweeney RF, Suzuki C, Cust DH, Kouzmanoff 3B, Gross LF, Rosales 2B, Pennington SS; Cahill RHP.

Tigers: Kelly CF, Damon DH, Ordonez RF, Cabrera 1B, Boesch LF, Guillen 2B, Inge 3B, Avila C, Santiago SS; Verlander RHP.