A's Annihilate Angels 14-0, Claim First Place!
by danmerqury on May 17, 2011 10:39 PM PDT
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In an efficient 93 pitches, Gio Gonzalez threw seven brilliant innings of one-hit ball, delivering a share of first place in the AL West to Oakland for the first time in almost a year.
In fact, by Game Score he had an 81, which ranks as his second best start ever, behind an 82 against the Giants on May 22, 2010. And considering that Gio could have easily pitched the 8th tonight if it weren't for the score and the intermittent rain, I'm willing to consider this start as his best yet. His fastball was lively and had tons of tailing action, topping out at 95 mph, while his curveball was baffling hitters all night. He racked up seven strikeouts in all, walking only one. Truly, ace-quality stuff.
On the other hand, Tyler Chatwood's horrible peripheral stats finally caught up with him. He completely imploded today, under the weight of Oakland's offensive attack. In only 2.1 innings of work, Chatwood allowed 7 runs on 7 hits and 2 walks, striking out only 1. Replacement reliever Trevor Bell didn't fare any better, as he allowed an inherited runner to score, in addition to adding another to the fire. The sixth inning was even crazier, as Kevin Jepsen walked two in a row with the bases loaded as part of a six-run attack. All told, fourteen runs in all, which is the most the A's have scored since July 10, 2010, when they beat LA 15-1.
The first double in the second inning came from the bat of Mark Ellis, who has singlehandedly created a new dictionary definition for the word "scuffling". But tonight? 3 for 4, with 4 RBIs, including a huge booming double off of the left field wall that would have been a HR anywhere else without the drizzly weather.
Glen Kuiper may have summed it up best: "It is a hit parade tonight!" And for at least a night, that hit parade ended at first place.
Current Series
2 game series vs Twins @ Overstock.com Coliseum
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Minnesota Twins Wednesday, May 18, 2011, 7:05 PM PDT Carl Pavano vs Brandon McCarthy Partly cloudy. Winds blowing from left to right field at 10-20 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 60. |
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| Thu 05/19 | 12:35 PM PDT | |
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You typed this before the game ended....
How did you know the A’s were gonna win?
"Loyal? I'm the most loyal player money can buy." - Don Sutton
When am i going to wake up from this dream?
"Caring about stuff binds us to the other people that care about stuff, and that creates the communities that makes life worth living."
And you were there....
And you and you and you!
There is no "i" in Teamocil. At least not where you'd think.
by GreenNGoldSooner on May 17, 2011 10:45 PM PDT up reply actions
Got my first Gameday A's badge tonight
only one thus far for the A’s. Somehow have a Tigers and an Opening Day Badge as well.
Even a blind squirrel is right twice a day.
on to lavender city!
Resident Smartass.
and my residency is Blazersedge.com
by Devyn on May 17, 2011 10:44 PM PDT up reply actions 2 recs
I'm sad...
We don’t get to see Chatwood next series unless the Angels get a game postponed…
At the rate of PPD games thus far in this season, there may be a good chance...
"Yeah, all I could find was Triple-Sec and rootbeer...What?! You mean you had tequila the whole time?!"
Gotta sweep the Twins too.
Need to put some ground between us and the Rangers as Hamilton and Cruz are close to coming back.
"We were shit, pathetic," Guillen growled early in spring training. "We hit too many home runs."
It's like Christmas, Purim, Fourth of July and Free Scoop Day rolled into one
Being called a poet as a rock ’n’ roll musician is like being called a physicist as a baseball player. It might have some application but it’s pretty remote. - Richard Hell
by fridaynightfan on May 17, 2011 10:53 PM PDT reply actions
Next Week's A's called...
… they want their offense back
Next week's A's didn't have any offense to begin with.
"Never overlook an orchid while searching for a rose" - Buck Showalter
by Philip Christy on May 18, 2011 9:57 AM PDT up reply actions
5 run mojo still intact
Can this one count for 2?
A's undefeated when they score 14 or more this year!
2011 Oakland Athletics: We have Cy Young pitchers and make yours look like it, too
Even before this game, but especially after this game
A’s are the MLB ERA Leader. Also, we have the 2nd lowest (to the Phillies) Runs Allowed in the MLB, and after the Indians (4 runs behind), we have the AL Lead by a considerable margin.
Compare us to the Giants, and I think we’re well off (they have a negative run differential, and somehow worse pitching AND hitting).
Even a blind squirrel is right twice a day.
3rd lowest behind Atlanta too (-1 run). And they've played 2 more games than us
The Giants have worse hitting partly because they did absolutely nothing to improve it over the winter. Complacency will be their undoing.
Monumentally
That’s how lucky the Giants were last year. It actually gives me hope.
by Colorado Fan on May 18, 2011 7:38 AM PDT up reply actions
Michael Taylor '11 = Buster Posey '10?
We really need a spark from the farm or a trade to ignite the offense.
Cleveland
has the most runs scored in the AL (by 6 runs over the Yankees), and 2nd fewest allowed (by 4 to the A’s).
What an amazing start for that club – and Sin-Soo-Choo is opsing under .700!
"To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other." - Jack Handey
by JJ on May 18, 2011 9:37 AM PDT up reply actions
Is toronto that deep that they can give us
Magnussen and Purcey. Both guys are pitching with the big club now.
by gratefuldude on May 17, 2011 11:34 PM PDT up reply actions
It's not how deep they are, it's how badly they wanted Rajai.
"Feel so bad, feel like a ballgame on a rainy day"-Lightnin' Hopkins
by justANotherAsFan on May 17, 2011 11:35 PM PDT up reply actions
Don't forget
We ended up with Purcey also in that deal. The other minor leaguer was traded back to BJ for Purcey.
You know how The Angels Angels of Anaheim outperform their pythag every year?
Is this how it happens?
"Some of us know him as the a-hole who piled into Ray Fosse in an All-Star game (it's why Ray is the way he is folks)" - OptimistPrime
I think it is.
I think they have a philosophy that when a game is out of hand, they just swing and take a seat on offense, and trot out the dogs to pitch.
"Feel so bad, feel like a ballgame on a rainy day"-Lightnin' Hopkins
by justANotherAsFan on May 17, 2011 11:41 PM PDT up reply actions
They did it last year, too, when we beat them 15-1 (IIRC)
those kind of numbers do a major hit on the accuracy of pythag. One game like that affects almost 10% of the season expectation.
"Feel so bad, feel like a ballgame on a rainy day"-Lightnin' Hopkins
by justANotherAsFan on May 17, 2011 11:43 PM PDT up reply actions
I still don't believe that happened
At this point, I'm pretty much done with surprises - Michael Crabtree
What game last week?
Last of the Ninth - Photography
by Flashfire on May 18, 2011 1:13 AM PDT up reply actions 2 recs
I'm glad we worked that Ellis thing out last week!
Now let’s have a Fanpost on DFAing Kouzmanoff – maybe we can get him turned around, too.
I watched the first few innings of this game
thinking the same thing was going to happen to the A’s and Gio that happened in reverse last week. Was sure glad when the rain let up and when 4 1/2 innings were in the books.
no recap on Halos Heaven
went there to lurk and read big cow tears, but they haven’t even recapped the game!
Some ANer who has an account there needs to go on and do a recap, or at least give them some crap for not writing one.
i've been over there to watch
It’s kinda funny to read. There is no hope over there. On a funny scale of 1-10 (10 being Lookout Landing), they are still a 2 or 3. Five/Six years ago, the funny scale was pretty much zero.
by Colorado Fan on May 18, 2011 7:41 AM PDT up reply actions
Funny scale was higher, IMHO
mostly in the same way that watching guys swallow glass is funny.
Trying to pull a Gio and forget it happened
"Once you go Bed....everything else is dead." - Bed
"So you're saying we should skin the Rangers and wear them as uniforms? I’m down." - Kyli
by cuppingmaster on May 18, 2011 7:53 AM PDT up reply actions
Easy way to get banned there:
Go over and write something such as (to steal a bit from that stupid All-Star Game slogan):
“Unlike the A’s game in Texas last week, this one counts!”
Last of the Ninth - Photography
and they did sorta recap
But they also posted like three other articles to the front page to push it down.
by LoneStranger on May 18, 2011 10:35 AM PDT up reply actions
I can only hope that the same would happen here if the A's took a pounding like last night
"Juuuuust a bit outside" - Harry Doyle
The first link is hilarious
I like how us, LL, and HH all sort of think the same things about our teams
"Once you go Bed....everything else is dead." - Bed
"So you're saying we should skin the Rangers and wear them as uniforms? I’m down." - Kyli
by cuppingmaster on May 18, 2011 12:57 PM PDT up reply actions
Awesome Offensive Explosion
Nice to see everyone start hitting, and Ellis had another good game. Ditto for Kouzmanoff. Hopefully this can get something started for the team offensively.
Excellent game by Gio, as well. I suppose the weather gods are on Oakland’s side! Saw Magnuson for the first time, and he liked pretty good; throwing in the mid-ninties and locating his pitches quite well.
Kouz = Bobby Crosby
Anyone else noticing cardenas kicking ass? maybe its time to give him a try at the big show at third. Maybe putting kouz at AAA will get his gears going
Yeah, Cardenas Has Been Hot
Sooner or later, I think Carter, Weeks and Cardenas will get called u to the bigs to take their hacks.
Carter should probably be healthy first.
Official Athletics Nation Rotating Tagline Editor - Pam liked my old sig better.
My thoughtful watermelon is easily mistook for an early American catapult.
If Taylor starts hitting HRs I don't see why we wouldn't bring him up.
He certainly appears to be having a better start than last year at least.
Also
Somehow the Fro is losing on the A’s.com voting for Coco’s next hairstyle.
Please vote for the Fro!!!Vote Here!
by Billy Frijoles on May 18, 2011 10:20 AM PDT up reply actions
when it comes down to it, all i ever really ask of the A’s is not a >.500 season or a WS ring or for all the players to invite themselves to my house some saturday night for a kegger. nope. after all is said an done, the only thing that really, really makes me happy is precisely what they gave last night: annihilation of the angels. and to celebrate, a fun and lovely little ditty on said topic.
really don't care if i ever come back.
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