OK, so I know the 'he Foulked it up' gag is a hackneyed cliche, so sue me.

I went to Thursday's little matinee with the miehanA fo slegnA selegnA soL, hoping beyond hope for a sweep. Alas, things were not to be as we hoped.

Josh Outman was the starting pitcher. Here he is warming up in the bullpen from my perch in the LF bleachers.

Aaron Cunningham started in LF. Here he his showing his best side.

Outman has good stuff, but certainly needs to improve his command if he wants to stay in the majors next season. Here's a suggestion - try not walking guys hitting .177 like Scrappy Doo Reggie Willits. He did start off the game with a strike, at least.

After the slegnA scored a run in the first, Rajai Davis led off with a single. He then stole 2B after getting picked off - speed can cancel out bad base-running in some cases. Unfortunately, he then got caught too far off 2B when Saunders snared Cunningham's come-backer. Here's Rajai leading off just before being thrown out. Rajai, if you want to earn a place on this team, you need to rely on actually being good at running the bases, not just being fast.

I would have paid at least one dollar more if the scoreboard actually looked like this.

Jeff Baisley got his first major league hit in this game. Here he is at 1B right after the hit. Unfortunately, this is where he was when the inning ended.

In the bottom of the 4th, the scoreboard operator had a little trouble after Pennington's bases-loaded grounder to third resulted in a 5(unassisted)/5-2 DP. E-fail had the most anemic slide I've ever seen. The scoreboard was prescient, however - Hannahan struck out looking (on a fastball down the middle).

Outman had to come out in the 5th inning. Because the A's were already behind 0-1, Geren turned to the unholy trinity of Casilla, Embree, and Foulke. Casilla allowed Outman's two runners in the 5th to score. The second run was especially galling - Quinlan took off from 1B while Casilla was still in the stretch. Apparently, the A's don't teach their AAA players how to execute a run-down play, because not only did they not get Quinlan out (he went back to 1B when it was uncovered), but they allowed Hunter score in the process.

Embree came in to pitch the sixth. Aside from two walks (one intentional), he did all right.

Then came the Foulke-ing 7th. Foulke gave up a HR to Morales. Two pitches later, he gave up another to Napoli. Here are Davis and Denorfia watching it go.

On the next pitch, Brandon Wood (0.194/0.216/0.318, OPS+ 39!) launched a moon-shot into the LF bleachers about one section to my right.

I sure hope this is the last time I see Foulke walking off the field in an A's uniform.

At this point, I decided to kick back and relax, because I was not a happy camper.

Then the bottom of the 9th rolled around. Before the inning started, Hunter tried to throw to warm-up ball to the fans in the left-center bleachers. Instead, he clanged it off the facing of the stands - FAIL!. That pretty much set the tone for the 9th. He caught some grief for this, and actually had some fun with the fans up there.

Scioscia decided to go with Bootcheck Bulger to finish up. He sucked. Here he is about to come out after a HPB and a walk.

Jose Arredondo gave up a walk and an infield single to break up the shutout. After striking out Buck, SpartaCust pinch hit for Davis, so in came K-Fraud.

K-Fraud walked Cust to force in a run. Yes, it was inside, you farking douchebag.

After getting Cunningham to ground into a force play, K-Fraud faced Zooks, who singled in the last A's run right after this shot was taken.

Swooney came in to pinch hit for DFA, but made the last out.