i like that phrase (at least when it is applied to our pitchers' performances).

...he had TWO beautiful swings--one on the single, and one on the HR, just like the one he missed on Sat. night.

But he still double-clutched two plays (maybe it's cold), and K'd with one out and a runner on 3rd.

But overall, he looks MUCH more relaxed at the plate than in the past. Nice change.

And Gaudin was stooooooopid good.

is about as easy as it comes.  At the same time, I don't want to take away from Gaudin.  He's been outstanding this year and more than that, he hasn't been walking people.

    Croz hitting the ball where it's pitched instead of trying to pull everything to the moon is one of this year's most promising developments; hopefully, today's are just the first of many dividends it pays.  But maybe the rest of the team is learning a similar trick:
    Can't seem to score in more than one inning a game?  Don't fight it!  Just score a zillion runs in the same inning!  (Worked against the Giants today too.)

Gaudin hasn't done many interviews.
"One-pitch outs are great. Two-pitch outs are even better."
All smiles.

The coup de grace came tonight when KICU lost its audio connection to Glen and Ray for several minutes in the early innings.  Mark Wolfson (I assume) connected to Ken and Vince's radio broadcast for a few moments, but it quickly became obvious that radio was a few seconds behind the television picture.  Rather than continue with the discrepancy, KICU went back into silence until Glen and Ray's voices were restored following a commercial.

The radio delay was somewhere between 12 and 17 seconds during spring training and the first week of the regular season, and that was just ridiculous.  I believe CBS Radio and its local affiliates heard the complaints and cut that delay to about 2.5-3 seconds at the start of the current homestand.  I would prefer a live broadcast, but for the time being I don't think the CBS lawyers are going to permit that.

In addition to discretionary ("bleep") delays there are delays caused by technology.  Tonight it appeared that Nico, using Comcast standard cable in Berkeley, was getting his TV picture several seconds earlier than me using Comcast digital in Oakland.  No doubt my neighbor watching the game on DirecTV was seeing his picture at a different time than either of us.

I grew up listening to radio broadcasters call baseball games when few games were on TV, I want to listen to Ken and Vince while watching the TV picture, it's not a criticism of Glen Kuiper, it's just a personal preference.  It has become abundantly clear that if I want to do that, I need to have hardware in my living room to synch the radio broadcast with TV, because with all the different feeds and delays it's by mere coincidence that radio and TV would arrive at anything approaching the same time.  

I have invested in hardware which, if it works as promised, will resolve this issue to my satisfaction.  I don't want to bore the 99.5% of AN that doesn't care about this with any further discussion, so I've put my e-mail address in my public profile...especially to be used by Nico for discussions about DelayPlay in the next few days, but anyone is welcome to join in.

--Soaker (Eric)

long underwear, winter jacket, wool hat and gloves, and the A's giveaway fleece blanket -- and I was still freezing out in the stands. But what I saw made me feel warm inside (ok, maybe it was also the afterglow from Marco's Sunday magic. I loved seeing his reaction to the fans cheering him as they showed his HR and vistory dance around the bases on the diamond vision!)

Gaudin looked very confident and in control on the mound. Crosby had two good at bats, that ended up of course with the 3-run shot that was the game. More importantly, he looked good on defense. Let's hope he keeps it up. (Swish just said Crosby cut his hair and beard; the fiancee might not like it, but it certainly didn't hurt Crosby's play.)

It's always good to win, but especially good to beat the Angels. Anderson looked bad in left field, and not great at the plate either.

It was so cold in the Coliseum tonight, when Mike Scioscia visited the mound, Jeff Weaver asked him to blow on his [blank].

Gaudin looked great, threw his pitch regardless of the count.  There musta been 4-5 weakly hit bouncers for 3-1 putouts.  In command nearly the whole way...I like this year's Chad.

and I enjoyed it a lot, which is a change of pace. Good work, people. Our pitching is shaping up quite nicely.