If You Can’t Score In More Than One Inning, You Aren’t Going To Win A Lot of Games

<tries to regroup>

At least this series was Hawk-less.

That, and my 9-month-old son is making sure I don't get so irritated when games like today's happen.  Or at least I don't look like I'm irritated. :)

did you start writing this in the 2nd inning?

Geren's "Quick Hook" is going to cost the bullpen down the road (if not already).  Kennedy was not in trouble when they yanked him in the 6th.  Maybe Geren is falling in love with the bullpen (I don't blame him).

• Street can't pitch back-to-back games.  Either that, or he's hurt.  He hit 90 MPH maybe once today.  He shook off Kendall more than once (no confidence in his fastball).  Kendall visited twice.  Curt Young once.  Bob Geren once.  The velocity was not there.  Doesn't anyone notice that in the dugout or bullpen session???
• Duke can't go back-to-back, either.  He did not have his stuff today.
• Shannon Stewart is not a good left fielder.  The sac-fly was about 75 feet away from the infield grass, and it wasn't even close at home.  The ball hit by Konerko would have been caught by 75% of leftfielders.

Not a good day for the A's.

If I counted correctly, the A's have had 39 HITLESS innings (batting) so far this year. That's 3.9 hitless innings per game.  That's almost half.

The trend has worsened in the last 3 games against the 'Sox. In those 3 games, we have gone hitless in 17 of 27 innings. That is a recipe for losing unless you are putting up some crooked numbers  in the other frames.

Oakland has played games on 10 straight days, ending with today's loss. Hopefully, the day off tomorrow and again on Monday will help the bats.

1. Shannon Stewart's arm is weak, VERY WEAK. The Erstad sac fly was maybe 40ft onto the outfield grass. I didn't think the Sox's were going to send Uribe, tells you what they think of Stewart's arm.

2. I think Geren should have kept Duke in for another inning, even though he gave up the game tying HR, he still looked good in the 8th.

3. THE DELAY ON THE RADIO SUCKS!

ENTERING THE GAME (THATS WITH OUT EVEN INCLUDING THIS ONE) WE WERE ALSO 7TH IN BATTING AVERAGE, 8TH IN ON BASE PCT, 12TH IN SLUGGING, 12TH IN OPS AND 12TH IN RUNS! AND WITH THIS GAME, WE'LL BE 13TH IN RUNS AND LIKELY LAST IN RUNS PER GAME!

We need to fix our offense, and small sample size be damned, there are several guys in this lineup that won't hit regardless. We know that from career totals.

Kendall and Stewart will not hit, yet they continue to play everyday and Kendall only now has been moved down in the lineup.

Crosby still needs to learn how to hit. And Scutaro is not as good a hitter as people seem to deem him.

Ellis and Buck are not to be counted on, virtue of Ellis being a light hitting 2B and Buck being a rookie.

The rest of the lineup, Chavy, Bradley, Piazza and Swisher, are our only real hitters. And we know that with how streaky Bradley, Chavez and Swisher are, Piazza is our only hope for a steady hitter.

All projections have us being at best a .500 team, and that was with our pitching doing worse and our offense doing better. Well, they're canceling each other out, but I think if our pitching stays the same we could be very good, BUT NOT WITH THIS OFFENSE!

If we can't for any offense, we might as well give the job to some of the prospects and hope they can do a better one. I know that Suzuki can outhit Kendall regardless, and that Barton can likewise probably hit better than .200 for Stewart. We already bunped Buck up, Suzuki and Barton should be able to handle it (especially Barton) with the way they're hitting in AAA and ST.

I said it before and I will say it again. With the way this offense is right now, I would not be supprised if we were no hit by Jeff Weaver.

/rant

I haven't heard anything, but is he OK?  It didn't look good last night.

Maybe we could make a trade offer to a team with a crowded outfield like tampa for gomes or chicago for murton or milwaukee for mench or jenkins...

anyone have a guess of what our Starter ERA's are at this point?  Haren/Blanton/Harden/Gaudin/Kennedy.

It's gotta be about 1.50 ERA (give or take) - How do you go 4-6 with Starters ERA's being 1.50?  Bad defense & Bad hitting is how.

Appalled by the quality (if it could be called that)of the at-bats after the first inning. Spring after spring, series after series, game after game, many of our guys look just flat, weak, uninterested and seem unable to even threaten to hit the baseball with any authority.  Swisher in particular swings so hard he seems to want to hit a 6-run HR with no one on base every time up.  He's an easy out right now, as are several others, and pitchers can't be feeling very taxed or apprehensive facing these guys.

I don't understand, it makes me want to call for Van Burkleo's head but it isn't him up there with the wood in his hands.  All the past hitting coaches did no better, to be honest.  Is it just the usual April for us?  Why is that, why do we suck so horrifically early in the year?  Do these hitters toke the bong back at the pad in El Cerrito after the game?  It's just beyond comprehension, how it can be this bad this consistently, for so long.

On the bright side Mike P is taking to DH'ing like a duck to water, and he seems immune to the malaise that's afflicting so many others.  I just pray that Milton can play this weekend, lest we fall 17 games behind before June comes.

Goddammit, this is such a frustrating team sometimes, it's toxic.  Even last night, we won but it took years off my life.  

Ugh.

A's scored 28 runs in 10 games so far in April. Compared to last 3 years 04-06, this is about as bad as they can get. They scored 35 runs in 13 games from 8/9-23 in 05, including the worst 10 game span 24 runs from 8/12-23. But then they really bounced back, scoring in double digits in 5 of the next 6 games, and 71 runs in 10 games. If history holds, I think they will start bouncing back in 2-3 games. I desperately hope...

...going to the eighth.

I know it sounds ridiculous to say it, but I think Swisher should've caught Dye's home run.  It just barely made it over the wall and I do believe if the A's had Bradley or Kotsay playing center, it would've been caught.  An outfielder who got a read on it would've been able to get back there and do a little bunny hop and grab it from over the wall.

I also think Stewart should've caught the double and his throw home on the sac fly was ridiculously bad.

http://www.lookoutlanding.com/commen...

a bit like last year's loss against the Tigers at home where the A's had scored 3 runs in the first but after that got nothing. Anyways, this wasn't a terrible loss but eventually tolls on pitchers catch up to you.

it's a double-edged sword. Thankfully, we don't have to endure as many tired starters giving up 3-run HRs and THEN being yanked. But we may have paid for last night's win with today's loss, as yesterday Duke and Street worked in a game we were trailing, then pitched again just 17 hours later. It's a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" conundrum for a manager, very difficult to finesse.

Yes it's early. Yes they'll get better. But there is no excuse for the way they've been going about their business lately. I'd be less concerned if they were striking out 27 times/game, but the quality of the ABs in pressure situations is just downright scary. Last night's fiasco after the Buck triple is the epitome of what our offense has done so far this season.

All Ellis/Kendall have to do is hit a medium deep fly ball, certainly not asking much from a MLB player. Just a lazy fly ball that the fleet of feet Buck could score on, but instead of being aggressive and looking for a pitch they can drive, they let fat breaking balls float across the middle of the plate and eventually end up grounding back to the pitcher on fastballs low in the zone.

The fact that they have the wrong approach CONSTANTLY is a scary trend that has shown 0 chance of ending soon. While the Angels are able to turn strong outings by their rotation into victories, we are left in the dust in the division.

Here's to wanting our players so start getting pissed at what's happening and to really own up to the fact that they look like a little league team right now. Because right now, I see 0 fire in the way that they're all playing right now.

before the pitching starts to fade. Let's go boys! Kick some Yankee butt!

starters and relievers, they've done their job. I certainly don't expect them to be perfect...and pitching when the offense is so scanty certainly puts much more pressure on the pitchers.