The Oakland A’s called up pitcher Paul Blackburn, the team announced Saturday. The right-hander will start the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Texas Rangers.
When teams play a doubleheader, they are permitted to call up a 26th player to help out. Since this doubleheader was scheduled at least 48 hours in advance, the extra player is eligible for both games, though of course in this case he’s a starting pitcher so he’ll only appear in one game. At the end of the day, a player must be sent back down to bring the roster back to 25, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be Blackburn who returns to the minors, since he would otherwise have been eligible to be recalled today.