First the great news:
Yoenis Cespedes has a strained muscle in back of hand. Day to day. Great news for #Athletics
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) May 9, 2012
And more good news:
Brandon McCarthy says he played catch today, it went well. #Athletics
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) May 9, 2012
We can all take a tentative sigh of relief as it looks like minor setbacks for both Yoenis Cespedes and Brandon McCarthy. Because we sure could have used Cespedes' bat in today's game.
Basically, the tone of the game was set from the first inning; Tyson Ross threw 26 pitches in what would be a labor-intensive start for him; albeit, not as terrible as usual. The A's would put runners all over the place against Brandon Morrow in the first inning, but would fail to plate any of them, letting Morrow off the hook and sending him on his way to pitch a gem.
Ross likely benefited from the extra-wide strike zone today; he only manged to walk three in his 5 and 2/3rds innings. Granted the first two walks were issued in the first inning, so that was an improvement. Brandon Morrow would actually walk three in the first; in fact, Weeks and Pennington walked back-to-back to open the game. The A's--offensive struggles and all--have to score those runs. Instead, Reddick struck out for the first out, and after a successful double-steal of second and third, Gomes popped up, and after Smith walked to load the bases, Kila flew out.
The A's would put up a lot of zeros after that, and they would also strike out a lot. Every single A's hitter struck out at least once today; Recker, Inge, Pennington twice, and Daric Barton owned the hat trick.
The A's would go down 2-0 on an Adam Lind homerun in the fourth. They would cut the score in half in the fifth, as Pennington and Reddick drew back to back walks, and Gomes singled one in. Ross gave the run right back in the sixth, and Pedro Figueroa gave up his first run in the seventh. The A's also had a promising seventh inning, as Recker walked, and with one out, Pennington singled, but after Reddick singled the second run in for the A's, Gomes struck out and Smith flew out to end the threat.
Jerry Blevins gave another run up to Toronto in the eighth, and the A's offense mounted no other comeback. A disappointment after last night's high, to be sure, but I hope day-to-day on Cespedes means "tomorrow". We'll see you back here as the A's open the series against the Tigers.