It sure started off well enough.

Fastball on the low outside corner. Low fastball hit to Josh Willingham, one out. Low fastball grounded to Scott Sizemore, two outs. High fastball on the outside corner. High fastball outside the zone hit foul. Low inside curveball clipped on a foul tip for strike three. Three outs.

Six pitches, six strikes. Gio Gonzalez couldn't have asked for a better opening to tonight's game.

Home run. Home run. Single. Single. Single. Single. Ground out. Pop out. Walk. Ground out. That was inning number two, which took 40 pitches. Good Gio hit his spots and baffled hitters. Bad Gio hung curveballs up in the zone and paid the price.

The A's lost tonight 7-4, and it wasn't even as close as the final score. The Royals scored 4 in the 2nd inning and 3 more in the 3rd inning, all off of Gio Gonzalez. All told, he allowed 10 hits (2 HR), 7 runs, and only struck out 4 while walking 3. I have no idea where the A's first-half pitching disappeared to, but it's a distant memory at this point.

• In other news, Michael Taylor finally got his first major league hit, in the bottom of the 9th. It was a slow grounder up the middle that squeezed past the SS and the 2B, but hey, I bet he'll take it.
  
• Fellow prospect and 2007 Oakland draftee Andrew Carignan looked quite nice in his second career major league appearance,striking out 3 in 2 innings of relief. He displayed a quick 94 mph fastball and a sharp slurvey slider. Give Billy Beane some credit. This team can churn out good relief pitchers like no other.
• Hello, tease. The A's loaded the bases in the bottom of the 9th with 2 outs. Joakim Soria walked Cliff Pennington to get the winning run to the plate. Hideki Matsui strode up to the batter's box, the fans cheered, the RF bleachers went wild...and he grounded weakly to 2B on the first pitch. Ho hum.

The A's look to avoid a sweep tomorrow at 12:35 PM (Chen vs. Moscoso).