That's a lot of good starts in a row!

Good recap, except that it's spelled "rout."

even be found on the Radio, and ESPN, hasn't shown ANY other baseball highlight except Yankees/Redsox, right after the game they went to BBTN, and they showed highlights until Sportscenter, and then it lead off Sportscenter, and now they are talking about it again, AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHH

Loves facing lefties, makes him concentrate more, tries to go middle-away with the ball (re base clearing double vs Chen).

Has always hit well vs. Texas organization.

Really buys into the deep count, see a lot of pitches A's approach.

From the sounds of it, no veteran delivered the traditional shaving cream pie to the face during the rookie's first player-of-the-game interview.  Hopefully there'll be plenty more chances.

i just want to post a comment of appreciation to you and some of the other front pagers and regulars.  quite often your comments make me chuckle, which is sometimes embarrassing at work where Bessel functions and Fourier analysis do not usually cause laughter...  
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on another note, i'm not sure that i'm glad to see mariano blow another one tonight.  sure, i'm pleased to see the yanks lose, but it does take just a tiny bit of scoot's glory away if everyone starts beating up on rivera.

they showed Bucks HR

the mlb wrap notes

The offensive outburst was a welcome change of pace for Joe Blanton, the Oakland right-hander who had received run support of one run or less in 22 of his first 67 career starts (going 0-19 in those contests).

that's kind of remarkable, because his career record is 30-24.  Which means that he's 30-5 when getting 2 or more runs.  I know, i know, meaningless stat.  But, still.

WOW!!!  Where has that offense been hiding?  It was ridiculously fun.  I almost felt sorry for McCarthy the way he was getting booed.  It was like he was throwing batting practice or something.  Biggest screw up of the night:  standing in the freaking concession line when Travis hit his homer.  Unbelievable how slow they were.  It was the shortest line and I still missed an inning and a half.  Walking back to the car, the cop at the intersection said we couldn't cross but my daughter could because she was wearing the freebie Rangers hat.  So my son and I started chanting "lets go Oak-land!!"  He let us cross to shut us up. I love being an A's fan at the Ballpark in Arlington.  Skipping Kennedy's start but will be there for Chad on Sunday.

Makes up for the blank post earlier.

is a thing of beauty:

From Fangraphs.com. We had, what, a 97% chance of winning after Buck double? Honestly, Sunday's graph was much more awesome, but this one really inflates the ego.

Wow. I didn't see or hear one inning tonight....16 runs????? WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT? Looks like I'm not watching another game til we lose.

Suck it, Rangers.

These three pieces describe the same event—Harden playing catch before the game yesterday—with subtly different takes.

From the A’s website notes yesterday:  

Harden status uncertain: Right-hander Rich Harden played catch in the outfield before Friday's game, but remained non-committal about taking his side session in the bullpen Saturday, much less returning to the rotation Tuesday in Baltimore as tentatively scheduled.  "So far, it felt all right," Harden said. "We'll see how it feels [Saturday]. I'm not sure. We'll just see how it feels then."

Now, from today’s Slusser Chron piece:  

Starter Rich Harden, whose next outing has been pushed back four days because of shoulder stiffness, threw the ball about 90 feet during a 25-pitch session of catch and, if he feels OK today, he will throw long toss from a distance of 120 feet. And if that goes well, he'll follow that with a normal side session.

"I just played catch nice and easy,'' Harden said after throwing Friday. "So far, I feel all right.''

If Harden does not throw a side session today, he can still throw one on Sunday and be OK for Tuesday's start at Baltimore, according to pitching coach Curt Young."

And finally, also from Slusser, in yesterday’s Chron "Drumbeat" blog piece, the same story with echoes of pessimism:

Rich Harden played some light catch briefly before Friday's game and in a quick interview session afterward he said he felt fine but won't really know much until Saturday. If he feels OK Saturday, he'll throw a side session. If not, the A's will have to get Brad Halsey  (the most likely candidate) on a plane for Baltimore for Tuesday's start, unless long man Lenny DiNardo gets the duty. They'd still need another pitcher, though.

The fact that Harden's already experiencing some physical problems just two-plus weeks into the season is a red flag as far as scouts are concerned. Harden's a hard thrower and high-energy on the mound and his body just might not be able to take the wear and tear. And anytime scouts hear the word "shoulder,'' they figure the worst - rotator cuff surgery - isn't far behind. So, like everyone else, they're watching Harden's situation with interest.

Harden has up till now been pretty unrelentingly positive in his quotes; his words above don’t fill me with optimism.  Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go examine some Chinese wall posters for hidden meanings, study the seating patterns at the last Moscow state dinner, and read the tea leaves in my morning cup.

miracle...haven't gotten tired of seeing it yet!

great walk around town getting some errands ran......nice latte, pleasant visits with folks on the street.  

Home to do some spring cleaning/sorting and reshuffle the mac and tv to baseball season mode....and crimony, Joe Buck makes me sick.

Oakland
Stewart, LF
Swisher, 1B
Chavez, 3B
Bradley, CF
Buck, RF
Crosby, SS
Walker, DH
Ellis, 2B
Melhuse, C

Texas
Hairston, CF
Kinsler, 2B
Young, SS
Teixeira, 1B
Sosa, DH
Blalock, 3B
Kata, LF
Cruz, RF
Laird, C