Happy Fourth of July – Hope Fireworks Are Better Than The Game
by baseballgirl on Jul 4, 2007 4:13 PM PDT
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PrintWell, the tone of the game was set early, after Kennedy put the A’s in a deep hole after pitching two thirds of an inning, allowing four runs. Shane Komine came in to temporarily slow the bleeding, which turned into a geyser by the seventh, but due to the lack of early offense (or Dustin McGowan’s pitching prowess--either way), the A’s probably would have lost the game anyway.
Cust and Johnson put the A’s on the board late, but it was another case of ‘too little, too late’ as the A’s drop the game, the series, and to two games over .500. I don’t have any suggestions for them. Pitch better, maybe? Stop walking people?
I guess all we can do is root for the Angels to lose tonight, and hope that the A’s can hang in there long enough to get a chance to play head-to-head in games that count.
The A’s take on Seattle at 7:05pm tomorrow night, as the A’s have four home games before the All-Star Break. I hate to use ‘must-win’, but geez, they are running out of chances.
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The early euphoria
that we all had the DiNardo and Kennedy could keep us in games has been erased in the past week or two, and what does it say about a team that the best player on it is a 29 year old AAAA player?
by china bob on Jul 4, 2007 4:20 PM PDT reply actions
21 of our next 31 are against the division
If we can get hot at the right time we sure could help salvage our season. That's all I got right now.
Happy 4th to everyone!
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 4, 2007 4:25 PM PDT reply actions
run running have run
It's too bad the Athletics will have to rely on a catastrophic inability by the Angels to play .500 ball for the Athletics to make postseason playoffs, ...
....but I think "have run" is to be linked with "time" at this showing today...
by One won lost won on Jul 4, 2007 4:27 PM PDT reply actions
Tomorrow is another game!
Enjoy the 4th, all! Going camping the next few days, so listening to the games on my transistor radio. I hope the good guys pound on the M's so Rick Rizz and Dave Newhouse don't get too excited.
by A'sfansince1970 on Jul 4, 2007 4:31 PM PDT up reply actions
Have fun! No campfires please
I can't figure out why people need a "fire" when they camp in 90 degree heat! Not enough smog in their regular life????
See fire, Angora, cause. Stupid campfire ONE MILE from Highway 50. Wow that's roughing it.
by One won lost won on Jul 4, 2007 4:59 PM PDT up reply actions
Not the case camping in Oregon
lots of rain during the spring, no humidity and okay for campfires.
by A'sfansince1970 on Jul 4, 2007 10:18 PM PDT up reply actions
Okay, sounds good.
I still don't build campfires, even in Alaska where you can see snow in the summer. I simply don't need to breathe anymore smoke...
...but to each his own...
by One won lost won on Jul 5, 2007 10:16 PM PDT up reply actions
Throwing two mediocre lefties
in a series against the Jays is a recipe for...well, this. Oh well; time to sweep the M's.
This Game Showcased All that is Wrong Right Now
with the A's.
- Kennedy's appearance today shows the black hole that exists with our #4 and #5 starters.
- Komeni (sp?) although gutsy in his performance is nothing more than an average AAA pitcher. The Jays pretty much owned him. We could have put in any of 3/4 other guys from the pen and the assessment and likely result would have been the same. An average AAA pitcher hit hard by a good hitting team.
- Cust's K with the bases loaded..how often have we seen that from our offense? (The answer is way too often).
- I know there was a DP somewhere in there too.
- Not scoring Chavy on Crosby's single...perhaps good baseball says that you hold the runner at third down 8-0; but with two outs and Kendall on deck why not try to make something happen? Again, the A's all too often this year have not tried to make it happen.
- Speaking of Chavy and Kendall, both were in their element..Chavy with his double with us down 8-0 (same at bat with the A's down 2-1 and Chavy K's or pops out) and Kendall having an absolute helpless at bat with Chavy at 3rd. All too familiar.
The good news is that this team an uncanny ability to pull it together in the 2nd half. So we can't write off the season just yet. We just need to get Harden and Loiza back in the rotation..this gets Kennedy back to his role in the bull pen. Add Calero and Street and we can then return to Sacramento their pitching staff.
On offense, Chavy has to show up and become clutch again. Without him we are toast.
chavezy is an a$$hole
bottom of the 7th, chavez showed his true colors today.
two out and he's on second (following his ringing ground rule double). Crosby smashes a single to left. Now with two out Chavvy should be running hard toward home. But he stops to see if its gonna fall, lolly gags around third and returns to third. my section was going nuts cuz we thought the A's broke up the shut out. we really went nuts when we saw chavvy still on third. was he afraid of matt stairs arm? did he lose track of how many outs there were?
kendall grounds pops out to shallow right and chavvy runs home. no run.
as he run back to the dugout (he's apparently going to be lifted for murphy), an A's fan starts to heckle chavvy for not scoring on crosby's hit. chavvy starts to argue back. i'm not sure if the fan used incorrect language, but his argument was 100% correct.
Down 8-0, chavvy mailed it in. not what we want or expect from our 'star' and highest paid player. chavy is a chump for not scoring and then arguing with a fan that was 100% right. pathetic.
i have no problem losing. we'll lose a lot of games in the best of years. heck the other team is trying. but to not put in maximum effort is inexcusable.
sorry if this was covered in the game thread but i just got home from the game and i'm steamed.
good report
If not at the game, we never get to hear about this stuff.
Doesn't surprise me. But, in an 8-0 game, having a collision at the plate, so you are injured and lose 8-2 eventually...well, I can understand his reasoning. I'm surprised he reacted to the fan, but he's human.
by One won lost won on Jul 4, 2007 5:03 PM PDT up reply actions
the jays conceded the run.
the throw was cut off to prevent crosby from going for second.
it was a lolly gag play by chavez who was watching the flight of the ball instead of running hard. he should've been round third well before the ball got to stairs. that's what has me steamed. Lach had to stop him at third to chavez's inexcusable play.
he shoulda scored easily. there wouldn't have been a collision at home.
unlike chavez, stairs did the fundamentally right thing by throwing to second.
I didn't see it, but I've never seen
Chavez lollygag it. Sounds like either he was being held up from the start by Lach, or incorrectly assumed he would be (possible mental mistake), but it also doesn't sound like a big deal. Breaking up the shutout is not the primary goal in an8-0 game; putting up a crooked number is the goal and if the next couple hitters didn't get Chavez home anyway his run wasn't going to mean a whole lot, outside of an 8-1 deficit. Teams get ultra-conservative when it's 8-0; seems like much ado about nothing, frankly.
ordinarily, i'd agree with you on most topics...
but the whole thing has me steamed. the lollygag or not running hard with two outs on any ball in play is juvenile...no matter the score.
with the blue jays up 8-0 in the top of eighth, the first two jays reached on walks. rios drills one into the right center gap. swisher looked like he was gonna catch it but the ball dropped in. the blue jays runners were off on the crack and both scored easily.
yeah, we could say it cost them nothing and it didn't really matter. but they played hard THE WHOLE GAME.
we lollygagged. if that were it i wouldn't still be steamed.
it was also that chavez got into an argument with a fan over said lollygagging. no matter what the fan said, you move on and head into the dugout.
but chavez answered back, approached the fan and then ran into the clubhouse. did he lollygag knowing that he was gonna get pulled and he had already mentally checked out? why get into it with a fan for 5 minutes? neither were cool and together it was the move of an a$$hole.
couple it with his poor play and i'm over chavvy.
I'm not really disagreeing with you, IBWT,
because I didn't see the play. I'm just suggesting it might well have been Lachemann who made the decision for Chavez to ease up. But really, I have no idea.
It also deprived Crosby of a needed RBI
My Crosbo-meter is now reading 59 consecutive plate appearances without an RBI.
I had this one on the radio at the beach, so can't really comment on the play, but Korach and Cotroneo said that Lachemann held Chavez at 3rd and defended his decision to do that. Now whether Lachemann had no choice but to do that because Chavez was dogging it from 2nd to 3rd...IBWT has an interesting perspective on that.
Like I said earlier
Losing to a Canadian team on Independence Day is soooooooo unamerican.
Hulkster, Apollo Creed and Uncle Sam-on-stilts are enraged! They want Kennedy traded for a bag of peanuts!
Now that we got the garbage out of the way, let's finish the half stong with our aces!
how are we supposed to salute america
as baseball fans when we got our a$$ kicked by a canadian team. thats like losing a wrestling match to tom cruise.
by greenandgoldpolarbear on Jul 4, 2007 5:22 PM PDT up reply actions
We match up terribly against Canada,
given our tremendous reliance on health care.
The A's health plan is terrible--
Usually you have to wait 2-3 days to see your health care practitioner, but the A's see Larry Davis right away.
I think it's because the A's hate America
and dig them French speaking Canadians. I'm sure they celebrated their defeat by eating a big plate of French fries.
However, we pay less for fuel so "1" for USA.
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 4, 2007 5:51 PM PDT up reply actions
having been at the game
it was a pathetic performance. the a's really need to trade kennedy because this guy can flat out not pitch. i cringed when i heard he was pitching today. as with chaavy, he is the complete opposite of what tejada was. miggy was a leader, chaavy is not. miggy could hit, chaavy seems like an extra in the "bad news bears". thanks billy beane, i'm really excited to see chaavy hit groundouts for the next 5 years. i think we should let stomper hit for a day. he's big, seems to draw a lot of walks, maybe he could fit the "moneyball" theory.
by greenandgoldpolarbear on Jul 4, 2007 5:19 PM PDT reply actions
Agree about Kennedy--Beane had a chance
to sell way high on Kennedy in May, but either didn't feel he could afford to (wrong--Kennedy's as bad as everyone else) or there were no takers.
Also agree on Stomper: He may not "stay inside the ball" but he does "stay inside the costume". He could certainly hit as well as Crosby, because when Stomper is in uniform neither of them can really see.
Kennedy sucks as a starter but he is not as bad
as guys like Braden, Komine and Windsor. It's not even comparable unless you are using his performance today as the norm. He's been pretty lucky this year, no doubt, but overall he has been okay for this team.
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 4, 2007 5:49 PM PDT up reply actions
True. Trouble is, no one would
try to pass Braden, Komine, or Windsor off as a #4 starter. Before the season I said that the one guy the A's couldn't compete without was Harden, and this is why. Even without Bradley and Piazza and Street or Duke, the A's would still be ok right now, IMO, if they didn't have to run Kennedy and DiNardo out there 40% of the time.
Great point. A 20% blackhole can be overcome but
40% is just too tough. Pretty sad that we have to hold out hope that Harden will get/stay healthy because Loiaza won't be back for another 4 weeks. That is what is so frustrating about this season-- Kennedy and DiNardo overachieved for a decent period of time yet here we are still sitting here 8 1/2 games out of 1st.
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 4, 2007 6:15 PM PDT up reply actions
Well, it was much warmer today.
That's about all the good news I have. :(
Please don't take this as
a personal insult or anything, but you suck. I blame you for the two losses in this series, but don't give you any credit for the win.
J I N X
Better get back home and see if the next group of AN'ers will have better luck beginning Aug. 3rd against Anaslime.
Would you classify any part of the day as "hot?"
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 4, 2007 5:36 PM PDT up reply actions
It was much hotter the
Thursday day game against the Royals in May. The seats were like, 1,800 degrees, though. The drunk guy in front of me resorted to dumping out a beer on the seat before he sat down. But it was pretty nice in the shade.
SJ Giants have a beer batter
We have a beer seater!
Okay, minor league got one on us.
We lost, but didn't we have fun too?
Kennedy was our Zito today. And I for one was glad to see Komine in to get a chance at real pitching. It sure sucks to see guys like Murphy, Brown and Komine get called up only to be sent back down later without any kind of opportunity...
27,000 at the Coliseum. Day game. A's players. It was bound to be fun whether we won or lost. That we lost sucked, but if we overreact as fans every time the A's lose, we're bound to scream at each other anywhere between 60 and 90 times a year. (More for KC or TB fans)
That Cust strikes out every once in a while is no surprise. That Kendall makes outs all the time is no surprise. That Crosby strikes out all the time is no surprise. But for me, at least Cust has real upside. Yes, that was me calling for Marco in the 9th to bat for Crosby. That was me yelling "Where Was Marco?!" when Crosby slumped back to the dugout after the inevitable strikeout...
I'm not waiting around for Harden and Loiaza to come back to give this team a boost. I'm more ready to see Buck back, for Suzuki to get some real playing time, and maybe... for Kendall to retire midseason and become bench coach, or for Crosby to get injured. Didn't he use to do that all the time? Put some effort into it, Croz!
One more thing... I still like Matt Stairs. I'd rather see him hit bombs against us than just about anybody. He's a short version of Cust, and forever a fan favorite. It's just sad we've seen so much turnover that just about nobody on the A's roster likely remembers his role.
Agree about Crosby--
the guy can't even get hurt anymore, the one thing he used to do pretty well.
The locker room has got to be turning on him...
since he is unwilling to make adjustments that might help the team. He is becoming my least favorite "A" of all-time.
by ohtobe21likehuston on Jul 4, 2007 6:18 PM PDT up reply actions
Mine too; I'm rarely
as disgusted with a player as I find myself with Crosby on a regular basis.
I booed an A's player for the first tme ever
today. Kennedy. 4 walks in the FIRST inning! He couldn't even keep us in the game long enough to enjoy one minute of hope. Bastard! I never want to watch him pitch again. I hope somebody burns his BBQ dinner. And the O stunk it up again against some shmoe I've never heard of. Only managed 2 hits before we left early. BOOOO! I want my money back.
On the plus side, last night's game was AWESOME, and I got to meet Jennifer, plus Cust continuing to be a stud.
The $20 you spent on the game,
or the couple million we're paying Kennedy? How 'bout both?
me too
never in my life have i booed this much against an a's player. he is the first a's player since jim mecir that has made feel very nervous when he pitches. how the hell do you walk 4 guys in an inning? maybe he learned from barry zito, i don't know. all i know is the a's seriously have to get some guys who can throw the ball over the plate.
by greenandgoldpolarbear on Jul 4, 2007 9:20 PM PDT up reply actions
I don't understand the booing
Do you think he likes walking 4 guys in an inning?
You guys are just kicking a man while he is down, a man who plays on a team you support.
by kaweahkaweah on Jul 4, 2007 10:17 PM PDT up reply actions
I don't either.
The booing didn't help and reminds me of Yankee fans and how they treat their guys. I was there today sitting in MVP seats by the Jays side and I felt so sorry for Kennedy. Not cool.
Agreed
Kennedy was horrible, but hearing the boos made me sad.
I agree with all the anti-booing sentiments
And I normally NEVER boo an A's player, but I just couldn't help it. I was really looking forward to the game, got there early with the family, got a visor, got a bunch of dollar dogs and a beer, and all I wanted was a couple of innings of hope that we might win the game and take the series. And he's not some rookie facing the Yankees, he's a veteran who should be able to throw strikes, and when he stunk it up to high heaven, well, I just couldn't help myself. I paid my money, and I felt like booing, so I booed! And he'll get over it, so...meh.
<Throws dollar dog at ArakSOT>
Hey! Poochini's worth $1.50
and stop flinging my dog.
Kennedy's Performance Yesterday
was beyond watchable. His inability to get close to the plate took us out of the game in the first inning. I also rarely boo a player on a team I support. But frankly JK earned what he got and I too booed to let him know that for this day he was a bum.
Booing him lets him know we care
Had he walked off the mound to a chorus of silence and indifference, Kennedy would have needed years of therapy before he could have a healthy relationship again.
No, I fear he would have
tried to go 0.2 IP, 4 ER his next start were it not for the important feedback he received.
I'm being facetious--I don't advocate booing one's own player for physical ineptitude; I also suspect that when you pitch that badly you kind of expect to hear some sort of restless discontent.
Pretty disappointing all around game
i was home today so did not see why Chavez didn't score other than Lacheman holding him.
i will say that I've seen Lacheman be waaaaayyyy to conservative many times so who knows.
not happy with Chavez, Lacheman, Kennedy, Crosby....
hope tomorrow is better.
But cap caper theorem was validated again.
And, as predicted after honky dots the previous two games, the red dot won -- much to the satisfaction of fully one-third of assemblage.
by The Dogfather on Jul 5, 2007 10:42 AM PDT up reply actions
maybe in the spirit of the game
since the canadian team won, the color of communism and canada would also win the dot race.
by greenandgoldpolarbear on Jul 5, 2007 1:46 PM PDT up reply actions
Aren't Canada's colours maple syrup brown...
... and golden waffle?
by The Dogfather on Jul 5, 2007 4:24 PM PDT up reply actions
Dear Ray Fosse,
Please stop talking about Dibs. It was kinda sorta maybe a little bit cute the first time, but now it is just annoying.
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