The A's beat the Royals today 10-8 despite less than stellar performances from Tom Milone (3 2/3 innings, 2 ER, 4H, 0 BB, 1K), Ryan Cook (1 innings, 2 ER, 1 H, 2BB, 1K) and Graham Godfrey (2 innings, 4 ER, 5H, 1 BB, 0 K). I guess when you allow eight runs a poor pitching performance or two needs to be sprinkled in there. Of course, the flipside is that when you win 10-8 it means something is going right on the offensive side and that was the case today.
First off, Yoenis Cespedes in Game #2 has shown he is human by going 0-for-3 with a BB and a strikeout. Does he not like the DH role? Was it the pressure of hitting in the three spot? What is wrong? Is he just not that good? I am sure many people are asking all those questions. I am not one of them.
Importantly, Josh Donaldson is hitting with a better stick lately; he went 2-for-5 today to up his spring batting average to .276 after a rough start. Kila Ka'aihue (who I think ultimately will win a backup 1B/DH job) stroked his first home run today against his former teammates. Seth Smith had a triple, against a lefty no less! Pennington, Weeks, Gomes and Sogard all had doubles. Strangely the attendance today was nearly double yesterday being the big debut. Maybe like winning teams there is a delay before everyone goes to see the prodigal player?
Share your thoughts below! And I hope everyone can check out the interviews I did with Neil Wagner, Graham Godfrey, Brian Fuentes and Grant Balfour by clicking HERE!