A's Offense Shows Up As Pitching Disappears

Brewers 8, A's 5

After being locked in a 0-0 tie for most of the game; today seemed like just another Spring Training pitching duel, but the game clearly was front-loaded with good pitching; the Brewers’ offense broke through in the top of the sixth inning, and just kept scoring, and the A’s offense got up off the deck for five runs of their own.

Dana Eveland threw two delicious innings to start the game; he was perfect through his six batters, while striking out one. Brad Ziegler followed him with a perfect inning of his own; including one strikeout. Jerome Williams replaced Ziegler and threw two more scoreless innings, allowing one hit, but it was Russ Springer who finally let the Brewers score; giving up the RBI single to score powerhouse Jason Kendall, who was on second with a double.

Rajai Davis’ stand-up triple in the bottom of the inning, (the fourth hit of the game; following singles by Buck, Giambi, and Crosby) paved the way for Holliday’s should-have-been-a-DP fielder’s choice to score the run from third and tie the game at 1. The game would stay tied again for about five minutes, until the seventh, when the Brewers would score again, this time off James Simmons. Simmons didn’t give up a double to Kendall, but got hit hard in his outing; after retiring the first two batters, he allowed four hits and three runs.

The A’s loaded the bases in the bottom of the seventh with hits from Landon Powell, Corey Wimberly, and Adrian Cardenas for Rajai Davis, who executed a sacrifice fly to bring the score to 4-2, but their pitching once again couldn’t stop the Brewers in the eighth. Kevin Cameron was the victim this time, allowing two runs on three hits in his two-thirds of an inning. He was replaced by Brett Hunter, who got out of the inning after allowing a base hit.  The A’s got another run in their half of the inning on back-to-back doubles by Aaron Cunningham and Tagg Bozied, but the new A’s pitcher Andrew Carignan gave up a two-run homerun in the ninth to bring the score to 8-3.  The A’s battled back in their ninth, opening with three singles, which eventually scored two runs and brought the tying run to the plate, but they fell short for a final score of 8-5.

It’s games like today that I wish Rajai Davis was just a better hitter; more specifically, I wish he had taken a page out of the Willie Mays Hayes playbook and could just get on base, because I love having him on the field. He would be the perfect leadoff hitter (he already has the speed in the outfield), and I think the A’s should keep him on the team, but I sure wish he could perform like this every game.

Chavez will be DH-ing again in tomorrow’s ballgame; we’ll see you all back here!