Good morning! Are we all present and accounted for? Here we are, a few hours removed from yesterday's debacle, and I'm feeling a little bit better. The post-game thread talked me off the ledge.
- As Nico said, we should be 1-1 in this series, and so we are. A tad unconventionally, but that's baseball.
- As Rob said, sometimes it just happens and we just need to move on. So true. The Giants are of no real consequence to the A's; they are just another series to win.
- As my brain says, you have an 162 game season; it's not about long winning streaks--winning eight, nine, ten in a row--it's about winning two out of every three games. The best thing the A's can do is move on, win the series, and go on to the next one.
Good news: We have a chance to take the series with a win today.
Bad news: Unfortunately, the rubber game of this series depends on Esteban Loaiza.
Worse news: He's being opposed by Matt Cain, who has been lights-out.
Interesting News: Ryan Quinn from MLB.com sounds just about as confident in today's start as we feel:
Good news: Our bullpen is slowly regaining its members.
Bad news: Most of them worked yesterday and I think that Saarloos is dead.
No news: No one seems to know yet if Jay Payton is in trouble and if so, how deep.
Lineups!
Kendall C
Swisher LF
Kotsay CF
Crosby SS
Johnson 1B
Payton RF
Scutaro 2B
Perez 3B
Loaiza P
I am pretty surprised to see Payton in there after yesterday. Hopefully he'll have a stellar day and it will calm him down somewhat. How about 5-5 with 2 homers? And poor Chavvy is missing. At least we don't have to worry about him running the bases.
Winn RF
Vizquel SS
Sweeney 1B
Bonds LF
Durham 2B
Finley CF
Feliz 3B
Alfonzo C
Cain P
