Just Your Typical Sunday Afternoon at the Ballpark
by baseballgirl on Sep 16, 2007 5:03 PM PDT
in News
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PrintSo, how best to describe today’s marathon contest? I would venture to say that offense was not a problem for either team, but if you were looking forward to today’s billed pitching match-up, you were probably disappointed. Padilla pitched to exactly two batters before making the game-ending mistake of hitting Nick Swisher, who promptly charged the mound, taking himself and Padilla out of the game. On the other side, DiNardo didn’t make it through two; a pitching line of 1.2 IP, 2H, 4BB, 5ER speaks for itself.
Lugo was only marginally better in his two innings of work, but Braden was able to pitch the next three without further incident. The A’s offense, in the meantime, backed by excellent days by Suzuki (why, oh why couldn’t he have started the season!), Hannahan and Ellis, made up the deficit and actually led the A’s to a slim 8-7 lead going to the eighth.
Enter Andrew Brown. Exit the ball, as Michael Young cleared the bases with a grand slam, putting Texas on top 11-8. The A’s rallied for another comeback in their half of the inning, but were only able to score one. A seemingly insignificant ruling (a catcher cannot stop the ball using his mask) would have given the A’s another run, since the penalty is two bases for each base-runner, but Geren could not win the argument.
When it was all said and done, the A’s had fallen short, losing the final game of the series 11-9. Today’s BartonWatch finds Daric with a hit, a walk, and an RBI, and the EllisHomerunTracker climbs to 18.
All in all, this series was by no means a showcase of top major league talent, but at least it suggests that the A’s were better than someone this season. And that’s just going to have to be enough for 2007.
And if you want to see highlights from the game, don’t miss Swish’s ‘takedown’. That should be excellent fodder for the 2008 A’s commercials. Either that, or ‘introduction to wrestling’.
The A’s take on Seattle tomorrow at 7:05
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video of swisher.....
charging the mound, now up on mlb.com.
takedown, almost...
anyone still think
we should send this guy to LA?
it's ludicrous to think that we would.
The A's need someone like Swisher to go to battle with. He posseses the kind of energy and passion that the underdog A's can't afford to do without.
That and he's a pretty good (and young) talent.
I was pretty disgusted with Brown
walking Wilkerson on 4 pitches ahead of Michael Young. Today the A's pitchers had a very Rangers-like tendency not to throw strikes early or often. I'm not used to that--and I don't want to get used to it.
just got back from the fights
er...game.
another sloppy one -- one of many this last couple of weeks. Sorry to see Brown melt down, but it was bound to happen sooner or later.
I was glad to see Blevins' MLB debut...guy's got a live arm. He is extremely tall and skinny (looked funny warming up next to Brown).
Blevins
His mom sat right near me and took pictures while he pitched. She was in tears at the end of his inning, very emotional. She said that when he called to tell her he'd been traded from Chicago to Oakland, she asked if that was a good thing. He said, "Mom, go look in my room." His bedroom at home is full of A's stuff. She said Oakland has always been his favorite team. They live in Toledo, Ohio. I now have a new favorite player to root for.
wow...that is really great
I've got a game story too. One of the vendors is a close friend of my friend. This vendor came over today and told us a Ranger bullpen pitcher made some remark about wanting ice cream to him as he was selling to fans in the seats near the visiting bullpen. The vendor said "working man to working man, I'll sell you ice cream if you want."
the Texas pitcher said "nah, not unless you'll give it away for free." The vendor replied, 'How much more do you make than me? You don't want me busting you in front of your teammates now, do you?"
The pitcher just scowled at him.
Not as nice a story as yours, but just a true game tale to share here.
how old is the kid
IIRC,
his mom said he just turned 24.
Love your story, too, OaklandSi. Wonder who it was? Chair-throwing Frankie, maybe?
So tell me
Who'd DiNardo hit to get tossed out in the 2nd?
by FreeSeatUpgrade on Sep 16, 2007 6:14 PM PDT reply actions
It wasn't Chuck Meriwether's strike zone.
DiNardo couldn't find the plate with Yahoo maps
I couldn't find Lake Moultrie with Yahoo maps
At least, not at first. But eventually, success was mine.
Blevins had a nice inning....
What's with all the walks the Oakland's pitching staff has been giving up? We're supposed to do this to the opposition, it's not supposed to happen to us!
by athleticsBB4life on Sep 16, 2007 6:25 PM PDT reply actions
to think we lost the season series to Texas is...
DISGUSTING!!!
by athleticsBB4life on Sep 16, 2007 6:26 PM PDT reply actions
omann
got to the coliseum RIGHTTT as the charge happened..heard it from outside...saw the replay as i was buying tickets..but exciting game for sure
He's been face down in the grass before
Didn't care for it.
by Englishmajor on Sep 16, 2007 6:56 PM PDT up reply actions
Plus the toaster told him to do it
Rotoworld says Swish is likely to be suspended
but also mentions that Hannahan might get suspended as well...if so that's a costly swan dive
Swisher's a given, but
why Hannahan? For breaking that bottle of Heineken over Blalock's head?
Bullpen use and high leverage situations
If you're going to pull DiNardo in the 2nd inning with 2 runs in, the bases loaded, and a 2-0 count on the batter, isn't that a good time to bring in a hot hand - if not your hottest - from the bullpen to stop the bleeding ? Escaping from that inning without further damage would have been the difference in this game.
by green star oakland on Sep 16, 2007 8:05 PM PDT reply actions
melhuse speaketh about the incident
Melhuse said that he wasn't aware of any anti-Swisher sentiment in the Texas clubhouse, but he, too, felt like Swisher had a bull's-eye on his back.
"I would definitely say something was up in this series," Melhuse said. "Obviously, Swish had a good series against them, and maybe they saw something they didn't like."
Melhuse also suggested that Padilla wasn't acting alone, based on the way the fateful at-bat played out.
"You could see they were on the same page, the way [Saltalamacchia] was setting up," he said. "It's obvious there was some intent."
video??
wow
i haven't been paying attention.
so the rangers hit swisher on friday, saturday and sunday?
and padilla almost hit swisher three times before he actually hit him?
has there been any retaliation from out pitchers? i would hope so...
Well, sort of. Our pitchers haven't
actually thrown at any of their hitters, but they have spread some nasty rumors about them and written many unsavory things on various MySpace pages.
Hey, Ozzman99,
"great minds drink alike"! I mean ... No, that's right.
Ah, I could watch that clip all night. :)
Too bad Swish didn't get more of the loser. Sucks that he'll most likely suspended for it. There's no excuse for throwing at a batter, over and over.
Whereas running at a person
and attacking him, well...I mean, ya gotta do that!
Hah. I totally saw that on the clip
and thought "get out of there! you're gonna break something!"
I broke something getting
out of bed this morning. Wind.
It's a nice way to start the day, isn't it?
Sustain what? The day? Or...?
Eew.
If anyone ever invented a car
that ran on farts, I'd be in stinky heaven. And a lot more farmers would grow beans.
And I'd be biking a lot more
I need to stop riding tandem
<calls Piazza, cancels ride>
Whenever anyone asks about
the wheels on my bike, I refer them to my spokesperson.
otg, the season will soon be over.
Aaand..MKT just now figures out what OTG means.
...isn't it
Oh Thank God?
And I have no confidence that this "witty banter" will not continue long into the offseason.
Yeah, that's what I figure
but I like "onions, thyme, garlic." It sounds like a Ron Burgundy exclamation.
btw
If you're implying that you find the banter between Nico and I less than entertaining, I just don't believe it. Don't act like you're not impressed.
There it is.
less than entertaining
;)
backing up his team..
the family of oakland a's =)
except i guess its not the smartest thing to do
Small sample size alert but...
I was impressed with Bevins. I'm not too familiar with him, but from what I've read, it looks like he was pretty good in the minors (especially his K/BB rate). It'd be nice if he could be a solid addition to the BP.
About the BP, what exactly is the cause of their decline? Sure, Duke would have been a help but after Street, Duke, and Embree there's a lot of question marks. Usually pitching is a strong point but even in our SP rotation anything beyond Haren, Blanton, and Gaudin is a question mark aswell.
And continuing with some food for thought, one of those analysts was speculating that we send DJ to SF for Nate Schierholtz... just throwing it out there. I don't personally know enough about him to make a case either way.
by AsWin on Sep 16, 2007 8:59 PM PDT reply actions
BP
How often, really do you see relief pitchers with long, consistent careers. Sure, a few guys stand out, like Rivera. But they are the exceptions that prove the rule, I think. Plus, they are usually closers. It seems to me that building a bullpen is 2 parts player evaluation and 2 parts luck. As you said, even with Duke, the pen would have been iffy beyond him, Street and Embree. On the other hand, who knew Calero would be so bad? And if Harden and Loaiza had been healthy, the pen would have had DiNardo and Kennedy. DiNardo was good out of them pen early in the year, and Kennedy had a good year last year. Street, Duke, Calero, Embree, DiNardo, and Kennedy would be a strong group who could share the workload.
Also, we're relying heavily on
guys who shouldn't be "high leverage" pitchers. Brown and Casilla are inconsistent; hence why they are not established set-up guys like Duchscherer. But we have been forced to pitch them as if they were Duke. And they're not.
As for DJ/Schierholz, Schierholz is an excellent prospect whereas DJ is a 28 year old AAAA player. So sadly, that's not going to happen.
Could I have more typos?
I meant 3 parts player evaluation, not 2. And I meant "the pen," not "them pen."
Typos. God almighty.
Thats' freaking patetic.
Oh yeah--I criticize him way more too.
I attribute most of my typos
to a bulging dick in my back.
You'd think that would cause
problems worse than typos.
That's true man.
Who said anything about a bulging disc?
I have a legitimate excuse for my mistakes--
lab tests have shown that I have typo blood. In fact, the lab called Thursday to say, "Woof! Woof! Bar-rar-rar-rar-ar!!!!!"
You and Hamlet.
Isn't that a vacuum cleaner?
Or not 2b...
See how it always comes back to Hamlet?
I always assumed the government
was the center of the universe--you know, infinite density.
schierholtz
hits for a high average and has some pop. worst batting average in the minors was his .270 when he spent a year in hell, or norwich.
i would love to see him in an oakland uniform...he's a dodgers fan anyway :-p
and he's my good friend's older brother.
any giveaways?
does anyone happen to have any of those cowboy hats they'd like to get off of their hands?
Any giveaways?
Try the game.
Fire Washington
He doesn't have any leadership with his rangers. Washington needs to show his toughness and take Padilla out of the rotation or fine him.
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