Cust, Giambi, Sweeney lead hit parade as A's get their first win of the season

but Cahill’s last inning was his best. Good sign, I hope.

WOOHOO! had a great time hanging out w/all the AN fans tonight. I’m kinda bummed I couldn’t go out to the bar after, but I’ll be there next time :)

GO A’s!!

27 outs is way too many.

The final line looks pretty good. But he had a pretty hard time finding the strike zone tonight. Granted, he got squeezed more than once. Still… I don’t know if it was nerves or what, but I saw a lot of sinkers and just a few breaking balls— and the breaking balls were hanging a lot. I’m hoping he settles down a little and gives a few less free passes next time.

Still, he pitched himself out of several jams. And hell, the offense showed up! Who am I to complain? Go A’s!

I wasn’t watching too closely but it seems like Cahill has only one pitch. Was he able to throw any secondary pitches even semi-effectively? I wanted to break something when he wen 0-2 to Kendry Morales only to throw him another sinker which he drove for a double. He doesn’t seem to have a strike-out pitch he can throw with two strikes, I can’t see him striking many guys out if he only throws the sinker. He definitely needs to learn some other pitches if he is going to live up to his potential.

Missed opportunities, let some run scoring opportunities slip away…but overall great game and look forward to tomorrows game and hope to get Holliday back in the lineup

Moseley is not good at baseball. Glad we at least put a lot of baserunners on against him.

The Angels deserve a taste…

Kind of like Vlad against us before Vlad got really mediocre

the only reason Cahill’s in there tonight is to break up some L-L-L situation. Though as a fellow southpaw, I find nothing wrong with letting lefties rule the world (Clinton, Obama, Reagan, etc.).

Anderson’s a better pitcher than Cahill, so let’s see what happens (pitching-wise, as the hitting may not necc. be so reproducible as tonight) when the A-man is pitching for A’s.

But maybe that’s because I was watching him on TV (badump-bump)

Seriously though – he didn’t seem to have the nasty changeup working tonight. Seemed like he had a hard time controlling it during his last start so they maybe told him to do without. But it was tough to read without the gun on CSNCA. Seemed like he was relying on the sinker and slider and most of his issues were command related and some overthrowing. Really damn good all things considered.

I totally love the bullpen. Nice job Billy. Can’t wait to watch Bailey pitch again. I am predicting that Bailey will get some 8th and 9th inning work this season. He looks like a closer to me.

These two first lineups are f’n craptastic. Wakamatsu chaligraphy couldn’t make this stuff look right. WTF? No way in hell Nomar has any business hitting 4th against a RHP. No F’n way ever. And Cust 6th behind Chavez?

Ok, GEREN! GEREN!!!! Wake the hell up and pull your f’n head out dumbass! Please!!!

Also, Rajai Davis is not a good bunter, ok? I have seen this pop up crap enough.

Ok, I’m gonna be ok.

A’s win.

Pics will be up tomorrow! :-)

if we have a graphic in the recap, can it be under the first paragraph of text or something?
like…

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… or something? it feels easier on the eyes to me.

(then again, this might just me bitching because i spent the night at a game where usc beat csun 8-7 despite 6 errors, and the game took 4 hours, and was boring and dreadful and rainy for a couple innings, and just dragged (long pitch counts, long waits between pitches, incessant pitching changes), and didn’t seem to ever end. and the worst atmosphere ever for a game… it was raining, so everyone moved under our little overhang and never came back out, leaving the first six or so rows completely empty. that and the ballpark seemed dead.)

Great bounce back by the offense. Cust, Ellis, G, and Sweeney all had big nights and nice to get a W on the board.

Cahill is gonna be fine if he just relaxes and trusts his stuff. When he is trusting his stuff and putting the ball in play ( rather pitching to contact ) he has a great defense behind him to handle the job. I also felt his last inning pitched was his strongest and it almost seemed he was just starting to get warmed up. Way to go Trevor!

Also, Cust is a heart attack waiting to happen in the outfield.

Casilla and Wuertz were totally sick and Ziggy got the job done in the end so job well done by our boys….Go A’s!

It’s informative and not all opinion. If I hadn’t seen the game it would let me know a little of what went on in the game.

I LOVE IT! Great game to be at the stadium, great pitching by the bullpen (Casilla looked sharp, and Wuertz might be a new fav!)

And the hits…? The glorious hits!!!!

How bad was Cust’s drop? I wonder if they would be better off with Giambi at first and Garciapparra in left with Cust as DH

Also seems Cust drops more often with rookie pitchers. I would keep him away from the field when Anderson takes the mound!

Living in NJ, the only way I really followed the team forever was box scores, but now this is the first place I have been coming for about a year or so now. Keep up the good work, I love being able to actually read analysis from people who know about it not some AP writer with2 sentences on the game. Thanks.

was pretty damn bad – in his defense, however, he did make a nice play to cut off a ball in the corner that Aybar hit and fire it back in to 2nd, limiting him to a double rather than a triple. I think he dropped the ball because he was worried about a collision with Sweeney/Ellis. It was a tough play, and it probably should have been Sweeney’s catch anyhow, Cust’s first mistake. I’d still feel better with Cust DHing, Giambi at first and an OF of Holliday, Sweeney, Buck.

Put Cust as DH, Giambi at 1st, Holliday, Sweeney, and Buck in the OF, and Nomar can still handle SS if you want his bat in there. Cabrera was a crap signing from the get go. I felt he was not enough of an improvement over Crosby to spend the money.

• He got squeezed at times by the ump, but he earned the 5 BBs. He cannot throw a strike “on command” so he ends up walking Figgins on a 3-2 pitch, or falling behind and having to center a pitch more than he’d like.

• My biggest concern was not Cahill’s velocity or control, but the fact that the Angels got so many pitches airborne, hits and outs both. One example was Torii Hunter’s double on a sinker that was basically down.

• Cahill hung multiple offspeed pitches the start I saw in Phoenix and did again last night. He must not usually have that issue, though, or he wouldn’t have the K numbers he put up in the minors.

• The 3.60 ERA for the night is misleading. If he goes out and pitches the same way in five days, he’ll give up one of the hits at the wrong time and have a line of 5 IP, 4 ER. He pitched like a 7.20 ERA last night.

• The best thing I can say about his performance is that he battled. He showed poise, made good pitches when he most needed to, and probably learned a lot that he will take into future starts. The two best pitches he made all night were consecutive sinkers in the 5th inning: the last pitch to strike out Rivera followed by the first pitch to get ahead of Mathis. That’s the sinker that will get out after out after out, and will set up his knuckle-curve to be a strikeout pitch.

I attribute some of the problems to overthrowing due to nerves/amped. The rest I attribute to the fact that Cahill has simply not yet reached the point where he knows, reliably, where his pitches are going – which is something a pitcher should master before pitching in the big leagues. He’s going to be very good, but not very soon. Whereas I predict Anderson will be very good now.

First, I really, really hate how the late innings are run by most teams. Why is it that with a man on base in the 9th inning (with less then two outs), if that guy is not the tying run, he is not held on base? I get the idea that “his run does not matter” but isn’t it still important to keep the double play in order? Especially for the A’s that are using a closer that is big on inducing ground balls? The A’s did not hold Figgins, he took 2nd, and on the very next pitch the batter hit a sharp one hop comebacker to Ziggy that would have been an easy rally killing double play. I just think it is a bad move, even if it makes you slightly more likely to give up a hit, it also makes it impossible to get two outs on one pitch. A bad tradeoff IMO.

Second, speaking of Ziggy, I am curious if anyone knows if he is now throwing a changeup (or if he always did, but I just never noticed?). To be honest, I am not much of a pitching guru, so could not identify most pitches thrown without knowing from others what is in the pitchers arsenol. That being said, Ziggy threw something that seemed super slow that had both Vlad and Hunter swinging from their heels and swinging through the pitch. Whatever it was, it looked great and I hope he uses it more. Any input anyone has on what that was and if it is new (or just new to me) would be appreciated.

Just a couple of late comments about Ziggy against lefties…

Last night, he broke Figgin’s bat on a perfect pitch in on his hands. Sometimes bloops fall. Pitchers execute pitches. It’s almost like when a guy gets a swinging bunt. Do you blame the pitcher for that? Hey…it happens.

I agree with everyone who said that Figgins should’ve been held on first…but that call comes from the dugout. With Ziggy, the odds are in favor of a ground ball and a rally killing double play. Geren should play the odds. So disregard the era at this point.

And on Abreu’s grounder…not hard hit. If the SS isn’t playing up the middle, it’s an easy out. That’ll change when Cabrera gets to know Ziggy and his style better.

One more thing…Whoever is closing games for Oakland, the number one thing a closer needs (which also contributes way more than usually recognized to being able to pitch in the majors) is mental toughness. Mental toughness isn’t just hanging in there when things go well. It is the ability to persevere through adversity…which comes to everybody…whether in the form of noise in a stadium, a broken bat single, a seeing-eye ground ball…or whatever. I love watching Ziggy pitch.