The A's win against the O's tonight 2-1 in the bottom of the 10th inning on Emil Brown's RBI single to center field.  The game went to the 10th inning on a blown save from Huston Street after a brilliantly pitched game by A's starter Dana Eveland.

So on a night when two MLB Davids faced off against one another, it was the guy that many A's fans didn't even want on the team in the first place who was the star of the game offensively.  Emil Brown scored the run to give the A's the lead and more importantly, wound up with the big single to plate Daric Barton to win the game for the A's.

This game was amazing in many ways and it's sad that so few people are showing up to watch this team play baseball.  They say baseball can be a game of inches, well consider all that happened this evening and dare to argue otherwise:

• Early in the game, both Mike Sweeney and Frank Thomas both looked like they hit home runs but the heavy Oakland night air knocked both balls down.
• Jack Cust got four strikes in an at-bat on a mistake by home plate umpire Ed Hickox, who also had one of those wild, completely unpredictable strike zones that led to Mark Ellis nearly being thrown out for arguing a called third strike (Bob Geren jumped in and saved Ellis from being tossed by a millisecond).
• In the seventh inning, Emil Brown just barely avoided getting doubled off second base on a Crosby fly out to center field.  He wound up scoring the only run for the A's in the first nine innings on two infield hits by Jack Hannahan and Rajai Davis.
• The top of the eighth the Orioles came so close to tying the game but an excellent play by Ryan Sweeney calling off Mark Ellis on a pop up that would've scored Adam Jones from third had Ellis caught it while moving back into the outfield.  Nick Markakis then grounded to Crosby to end the Orioles threat.  The infield hit by Payton that inning was questionable as to whether Payton was safe or not.  But as I said, this was a game of inches.
  
• Ramon Hernandez wound up tying the game for the Orioles in the top of the ninth with a ball to Bobby Crosby that could've possibly gone home had Kurt Suzuki stepped out from behind the plate and given Croz that option.  For some reason, Kurt seemed to concede that run. 
  
• In the bottom of the ninth, Brown nearly had another A's infield hit to lead off the inning when a ball rolled up the third base line and rolled foul by less than an inch and stopped.  Brown still walked, but the A's couldn't get him home.

You could not ask for better pitching from Dana Eveland than the A's got tonight.  The guy pitched brilliantly, rebounding from his tough outing against the Angels.  He was great in pounding the zone and working the home plate umpire's wild zone.  It's too bad that it was all for nothing.

The A's pen was once again great tonight, outside of Street and like I said in the comments, I thought Huston had a couple of bogus calls against him in the Melvin Mora AB, which turned into the tying run.  Street looked like he hit the outside corner on Mora twice but didn't get the call and that's when you could tell that both him and Suzuki were trying to figure out what to throw.  Street isn't the overpowering guy that some closers are and he needs that outside corner in order to be effective.

But Eveland, Devine, Embree and Brown were all good enough tonight to get the A's the win thanks to a little help from Clutchy McClutch (Emil).

By the way, I've got to admit that I got a few goosebumps in watching Chad Bradford strike out Daric Barton with that frisbee slider of his.  It reminded me of good times in the green and gold and he was always one of my very favorite A's pitchers back in the day.  It's one of the few moments that I've ever smiled when an A's player struck out.

The A's super duper funkalicious all-righty lineup wasn't nearly as interesting as I had hoped as Garrett Olson kept them pretty much off balance all night.  He kind of reminded me of hybrid of Greg Smith and Young Barry Zito (not the abomination that pitches for the Giants now).  He's a tough good young pitcher.  But I'm not sure how effective this all righty lineup is.  They don't seem to be fairing all that well against lefties.  Or at least as good as I'd like.

Ultimately, in a matchup of two Davids, it was fitting that Emil Brown, ManGod, was the one who chucked the heaviest stone.

Note from baseballgirl: Bonus double-recap day, as we thought we'd reward the AN faithful with not just one look at the game, but TWO! Enjoy!!!!

Blez says:

The day was all about Frank Thomas returning to the green and gold, and the A's seemed invigorated by having the Big Hurt back where he belongs, spanking Francisco Liriano and the Minnesota Twins 11-2, taking the series two games to one.  Donnie Murphy smacked two home runs despite some swirling winds at the Coliseum.

It was bliss to see number 35 on a huge, hulking human being again.  Actually, scratch that.  It was great to see it on a guy who saunters up to the batter's box after wielding a giant metal pole in the on-deck circle.  The A's won this one today, fairly easily.  The jumped all over the not-all-the-way back Francisco Liriano.  Liriano couldn't seem to hit the strike zone and when he did, it was usually a cookie right down the middle and the A's hitters capitalized repeatedly.

Donnie Murphy hit two home runs and now is tied for the team lead with three.  Ken Korach made a very interesting observation during the game basically saying that the A's have an almost National League lineup because Bob Geren has so many different options off the bench. 

Today, for the first time I can remember, the A's sent out an all right-handed lineup.  The A's have become known in recent seasons for having plenty of left-handed options, but always lacking the right-handed sticks.  Yet, up and down the lineup, the A's featured righties.  And it benefited them big-time.  Mike Sweeney announced that he isn't ready to relinquish his roster spot just yet, having a really good day at the plate and just barely missing another home run (six inches to the right of where he hit it and it was gone).  Rajai Davis made a very impressive debut by going three for four and making an outstanding catch in center field that I didn't think he had any chance at whatsoever.  Mike Sweeney even played first base and didn't look horrid doing it.

I am liking the A's set up because they can put in guys like Barton and Hannahan and Ryan Sweeney to face right-handed pitchers.  Course I think Barton needs to be in there every day.  I would love to get his OBP in front of Frank's OPS which would hopefully lead to many, many W's.  As for me, given all of AN's issues lately and the new gray hairs I have from it, I'm going to go get some Z's, K?

Welcome back, Big Hurt.  It's damn nice to see you in those white shoes again.

baseballgirl says:

It's hard to remember the last time A's fans, the A's players, and the broadcast team experienced the feeling of real, genuine baseball electricity pumping out in waves as the A's take the field, but it was certainly there in spades today.

The whole game simply felt different today, as A's fans at the ballpark found an amazing surprise when the lineups were announced, revealing the clean-up hitter, newly-signed Frank Thomas. The announcers described the ear-to-ear smile he wore on his face, a smile that no doubt only increased as the game wore on.

With Francisco Liriano starting, the A's chose to play both Frank Thomas and Mike Sweeney (first base), and they never struggled for offense. After Smith gave up a first-inning homerun to put the A's behind 1-0, the A's offense returned the favor in spades, knocking Liriano out after only 2/3 of an inning, with five hits, three walks and six runs.

Taking the 6-1 lead into the second, the A's made Greg Smith's 7 strong innings (7 hits, 1 BB, 2 ER) stand up, as Donnie Murphy hit two homeruns, and all of the starters except Thomas collected at least one hit; Murphy with three. Also with three hits was the A's new speed-demon and MUCH IMPROVED upgrade at center field, Rajai Davis, who also legged out a triple.

The A's ended up with 11 runs, knocked in by Suzuki, Sweeney, Brown, Denorfia, and Murphy, and after Andrew Brown and Joey Devine slammed the door on the Twins, the A's find themselves with another series win, in electric fashion, as they head to Seattle for the weekend still tied atop the American League West.

This is as good as I've felt about the A's since the last time Thomas worn the green and gold, and for maybe the first time, I'm wondering if the 2008 Oakland Athletics may continue to be full of surprises.

So to sum up: Pitching = great, hitting = awesome, Thomas = wearing the white shoes, AN = working again, day so far = A+.

The A's win the game tonight, 2-1, with Greg Smith picking up the win and the former Royals Mike Sweeney and Emil Brown enjoying playing against their former rivals in the Southsiders.  Kurt Suzuki had a career high four hits.  The Sox made it interesting in the ninth, but a key foul tip catch on a strike out by Suzuki followed by a weak ground out to Huston Street by Joe Crede, ended the game.

Yes, Greg Smith was pretty beautiful tonight.  Seven innings pitched, six hits and only one earned run. He did it with all kinds of tricks.  Everything from a deadly change up away to a nasty pickoff move that bordered on a balk twice, once on former Athletic Nick Swisher and one on the other former Athletic Jermaine Dye.  Smith was remarkably impressive particularly in the second inning when Buck wound up losing a ball out of his glove that he probably should've caught (granted it was a tough diving catch, but he almost dove too far) and Barton committed a brutal error on a Quentin ball dribbling up the first base line.  He was also nasty in the bottom of the fourth when he struck out Thome, Konerko and got Dye to pop up.  Smith very much reminds me of Jamie Moyer because he lives on the outer half of the plate and relies on fastball, change and a nice cutter.  Course he throws a bit harder than Moyer ever dreamed of throwing. 

Nick Swisher was pumped to face his former team as he was on base three out of four times, scored a run and nearly tied the game with a shot that almost got out but was flagged down by Chris Denorfia.

But Mike Sweeney obviously liked coming back to Chicago and facing his former AL Central rivals as he scored both runs for the A's.  You can't say enough about Suzuki this game though.  His pitch calling was stellar, he had four hits and made a HUGE play by catching a ball that Carlos Quentin tipped for the strikeout with two men on and one out in the ninth.  Suzuki was brilliant and for all the pub that Barton and Buck have gotten going into the season, Suzuki has been the true stellar youngster out of the gate for this young squad.

I did want to say that I didn't really understand the A's continuing to try and bunt in the top of the ninth inning with Jack Hannahan even with two strikes.  I understood the thinking prior to him going down 1-2, but once he was down 1-2 and judging from how poor he looked trying to even make contact for a bunt, you have to pull the sign off at that junction.  You probably would've had the same result as the strikeout that happened, but I just think that a manager has to pay attention to how the batter looks trying to bunt.  Especially once it gets to two strikes.

Travis Buck once again looked lost again at the plate, but that could be that he was just facing a tough lefty in Buerhle.  I liked Double Bonanza Buck better than the Clueless Buck we saw tonight.

One of the interesting things about living outside of the A's media market is that I now get the other teams announcers waaaaaaay too often.  And without a doubt, Hawk Harrelson is the king of all idiots when it comes to play-by-play.  He was yelling, "Get up, get up" when Swisher hit his ball to the wall off Santiago Casilla.  He constantly refers to his team as "us" and "we".  Yo, douche lord, you aren't on the field.  It's like Rex Hudler who sits in the broadcast booth holding a baseball during his work.  I'm just glad I didn't have to hear his moronic "You can put it on the board" home run call tonight.  Thank you, A's pitching for that.

I still can't believe how well this young team is pitching and these aren't even supposed to be the "stars" the A's got in the trades.  That falls more to Gio Gonzalez and Brett Anderson.  Yet, here they go and here we are.  I'm going to get in that spaceship and ride while it lasts (thank you, Englishmajor).