A's Show Some Toughness, Win 6-5

Greg Smith was consistently at about 86 mph on the radar gun in the stadium. I doubt it was a slow reading, because Greinke was hitting 94.

There was a “Guillen sucks” chant in the right field stands at one point. Guillen appeared to be smiling.

He also dove for a ball that was probably Ellis’ when he was playing deep behind the bag, and the runner ended up reaching. More excusable than the foul pop.

Very windy day in the Coliseum though. Guys were having trouble with every pop-up (Emil dropped one and ended up getting a force out at second anyway).

were winning. It sounded like a Redsox game with Neil Diamond horsing Sweet Caroline and I woke up to some guys yelling “all men cannot snore!”

Nice win. Nice win indeed.

Smith was pretty hittable (though after raving about his move to first to my friends I was glad to see him pick one off again). Barton again give too much of an adventure with the glove—but today he made up for it with the bat.

The Royals have some good hitters and starters; seems that their major weakness is the bullpen. If you can stay close and tire the starters out (which is the A’s MO) you have an excellent chance to win against them.

Huston gave us a bit of a scare in the ninth. That was a 30 pitch outing, beginning with two out in the eighth….and if Jack Cust was in left field instead of Chris Denorfia they might still be playing!

By the way: I was on my way across the BART bridge around 11:45 toward the coliseum. Passing me going away were quite a few people with bobbleheads—sometimes with two or three bobbleheads.

Stressful, until we tied it up but once the boys started making Greinke really pitch to them and his count went up I knew we had a good chance. Huston still scares me every time he comes in though.

The weather was perfect for a day at the Coliseum. I squatted in Section 129 and some guys next to me had the perfect nickname for Chris Denorfia: “Ratatouille” – just take a look at his team pic. It’s hilarious.

I did get there (way too) early for a Travis Buck bobblehead…after BP I went into the store to pick up a sweatshirt around 12:00 and there were people walking in at that point with bobbleheads in their hands…low attendance indeed.

but it sounds like the 0-2 pitch to Oliva was a near-disaster on Street’s part. How do you get near the strike zone 0-2 to that guy? Right after he chased a slider down and away, too. That was scary.

I’m from Bleed Cubbie Blue but I stop by here often to read Brad Ziegler’s postings. Have you heard from him lately? I’ve been checking back every once in a while for Gettin’ Ziggy With It but haven’t seen one since Spring Training.

I, like the OaklandSI of thirty minutes ago, just got back to my apartment from the game. And what a game it was. It’s true that attendance was on the sparse side (I couldn’t help but excoriate a few of the people who passed me in the other direction, their arms filled with bobbleheads, on my way in), but there was a definite energy to those who hung around.

It could just be hindsight getting the better of me, but one thing that I noticed to my seating area (the LF bleachers) was that nobody grew particularly dejected. It’s true that Guillen’s homer in the first knocked the wind out of us early, but as the game wore on, and the A’s kept getting their hits, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before they broke through. No-one counted the green and gold out and the guys rewarded that faith rather nicely. By the time Barton tripled in the seventh, the bleachers were going bananas. (Although Huston did provide a few stomach pains in the ninth.)

So even if the Hollywood script wasn’t required (I mused to the woman sitting next to me, a huge Travis Buck fan, that Geren was saving T-Buck for a pinch-hit homer in the bottom of ninth) it still feels awfully good to head into this Saturday night with a win. Hopefully we can earn another sweep tomorrow. (I’ll be back in the LF bleachers if anyone else plans on attending.)

Oh and hey, for those who were there today, anyone have any plans to make use of the All You Can Eat discount on Tuesday night? I figured if the A’s were going to give me a discount on it, the least I could do was sacrifice my GI tract. It might be fun to have an AN contingent take over the section.

-I felt like they were completely done Tues, Wed., and Thurs., but I had a good feeling about this one.
-About an hour before the game I had a premonition that Barton would hit a HR. He didn’t, but I think I misunderstood the premonition as “HR short of the cycle.” I love Barton. It seems he is not good at catching pop flies, though…
-The woman in front of me on the BART train was excited that Barton used to work at Jamba Juice.
-Geren is a genius for avoiding the bobblejinx.
-All those hits are really fun to watch. I like those frustrating lob innings better than 1-2-3s.
-93 win pace, baby!
-Devine has looked shaky almost every time out, but pretty good results. He’s not going to be a closer with the poor control, but he was a good pickup. Solid 2nd-4th bullpen guy.
-Denorfia kinda sucks, but he’s very fun to watch.
-Tony Pena Jr. had a .640 OPS last year and a .275 (!) OPS so far this year. Apparently he’s a good defender, but he botched like 4 plays the last two games. The Royals have to be able to do better than that…

(on Inside Baseball Saturday Night—on right now) that the A’s defense is disturbing.

but it was a fun game!

even though they can be frustrating as hell (errors in 12 straight games?!), i LOVE this team!

and my buck bobble is waiting to join my other A’s bobbles at work on monday!

what the heck was rapper/ actor ludacris doing throwing out the first pitch today? that was SO RANDOM!

- jack cust hanging out with luda and his posse

- barton, one of my fave young guys, is also one of the fan friendliest ones!

and mister, if you are on AN and see this pic of you, i just want to say thank you for making me laugh with your jersey today! :)

up to .333/.421/.652.

Putting Kennedy and Hughes to shame.

wasn’t a night game. Wind is really kicking up.

Left the game when it was tied, but I felt like the A’s would prevail—and I was delighted to find out I was right!
It was incredibly windy driving across the Bay Bridge, so I can imagine that it must have been a problem for the players, not to mention the fans. Congratulations to everyone who hung in there.
Quite apart from the wind, I nearly drove off the wind laughing at one point when Ken and Ray began discussing the Buck bobblehead. Ken said something like
“The next bobblehead day is Kurt Suzuki’s, I’ve seen it, and you’ll be interested in this, Ray; the catcher’s mask is detachable.”
And Ray said:
“Really? Was it like that for Kendall’s bobblehead?”

why hasn’t he played in either game??

bobbles a lot.

Go A’s

I am totally shocked the A’s won this game. Down 4-0 I thought it was over. Good to see them come back and hold on to win.

I don’t know how many of you tune in to MLB.com’s baseball “TV” programming, but Leading Off host and former Mariner catcher John Marzano died today after falling down a flight of stairs, possible because of a heart attack.

Too many deaths…

They show Barton’s drop and the home run that followed. Then they jumped to Sweeny’s going ahead hit and then the final out. That’s it. The Angels treatment wasn’t much better. ESPN east coast bias is really is obnoxious. When are we going to get an MLB network like the NFL and NFL have?

the JCOA or Emil wouldn’t have managed, including the 27th out. It’s as obvious that he’s hustling as it isn’t that Thing 2 is.

I posed a question to you on my blog today...
Curious to what you think

Blue Jays cut him. Wow!