From Cats To Birds, A's Stay On Track

HOWEVER, Cupcakes Blanton should now be in the top five.

Chavvy's catch was the #1 WebGem of tonight. Just another awesome night for the green and gold.

Welcome back steady offense. See? No drama needed. Can we keep it? PLEASE???

Good results, yes -- and he's had those sporadically in the second half, but with a poor approach.

Tonight, he looked much more like he was controlling his ABs. Even better than the HR -- and what I think set up the HR in the consequent AB -- was his walk, where he really steeled himself not to swing at Chen's crap. The shot of him at first after the walk was pretty priceless -- his face seemed to show that he *really doesn't like walking, but that he knows it's good for him -- like a 5-year-old making bad-medicine-Mr.-Yuck face.

Did anyone else notice the little toe-tap timing mechanism he's incorporated into his swing? Looks awkward, but it seemed to help keep him back on Chen's slooooooooow stuff.

That stupid alarm clock won't go off at the un-godly hour of 6:40 AM.

For ONE night, I don't have to run to Oklahoma rehearsals.

I don't have to worry about homework until tomorrow. THEN I have something for Honors English (a lot), WAY too much for Calculus, some for Biology, some for Honors World Cultures...jeez.

It's Friday! I don't have to go to bed really early! Open threads and pics all night, baby. ;)

That 3 pitch strike out made Bynes look ... well, "bumbling" springs to mind.

• Swisher took BP left handed ... even though there was a left handed starter. He and Kielty may platoon.
• Swisher spent a good portion of BP taking grounders at first, working on the 3-6-3
• Blanton threw long toss in the outfield with Swisher, not a catcher or Buckley
• Curt Young seems to have a good relationship with Blanton, as he was near him all pre-game and was with him in the bullpen before the first pitch. I'm sure the pitching coach is usually involved with the day's starter, but after more than 25 years of fandom, this was the first time I noticed it.
• This is Chavez' team. The great catch in foul territory. The play on Matos' bunt. The steal. If he comes through, we make the playoffs. If not ...
• Blanton is gonna be good. He kept the O's hitters guessing all night and throws harder than you'd think. (I was sitting about 12 rows behind home plate.) He seems to be one of those pitchers that will get better and better with experience because he can put the ball where he wants to.
• Kiko got unlucky on the bunt single and a seeing-eye grounder. But he was lucky that Rico and Street cam through big time.
• Crosby is about to break out. His homer was clutch, but he hot the ball with more authority than anyone else during BP.

Why, you may ask? I HAVE NO EARTHLY IDEA. Why would you waste an out on the ONLY GUY ON YOUR TEAM WHO IS HITTING TONIGHT? Seriously, what went through the coaches' minds there? "Um...what would Joe Morgan do? Let's see. Runner on first. You always bunt. Okay! Let's bunt!"

<rolls eyes>

The White Sox get lucky when they win. Seriously, they're going to win this game and everyone is going to talk about how the team doing all the "fundamental things" right. When, in fact, it could just be that Seattle has run out of pitchers, good or otherwise.  

1. Blanton had jaw-dropping strikeouts. The big knock on him early was that he wasn't King anyone. Don't know quite how he got so deceptive, but I hope that mojo stays charged. I do think he benefited from the ump's generously low strike zone.
2. That was a really impressive save from Street. Just brought the boom down on Miggy.
3. I loved the baserunning. Wash made a great decision to send runners home twice, once disrespecting Byrnes's arm, second trusting Chavy's speed.  On the other hand, that O's steal of third was potentially very big.
4. The A's know more than I do. But I was confused and dazed by the decision to pull Blanton at that point.  Calero did suffer from some bad luck, but didn't look that sharp. His K of Miggy (another one?) was a thing of beauty. He and Street both got Migs on sliders out of the zone.
5. I fully admit I feared Rincon. And my fears were mostly not justified. He had a great finish of Steroid Raffy.  If the O's keep chasing sliders off the plate and looking at fastballs on the corner, we'll have a good shot at taking this series.
6. TiVo rocks. We didn't see the game until late tonight, because Mrs. Apricot and I had to go to the emergency room because she had an avocado coring go horribly wrong. She will be okay, but I hope you'll all send good vibrations towards her healing hand.
   

Since the game was on "action 36" I actually got to watch it (my old, mostly broken TV only gets TV20, useless channel 14, and action 36) and Fosse went on and on about Kendall's handling of the staff (he scoffed about people judging his performance based on throwing basestealers out rather than blocking pitches and handling the young staff).  Foss also pointed out that Kendall had seven (either seven or five) blocks of balls in the dirt last night.  This is not a new point, but it seems someone has to periodically remind us here about these intangible points in Kendall's favor, since any time he goes hitless two games in a row the logic-challenged come out of the woodwork to say how lousy he is.