and sometimes the worm gets you. Or something like that.
Barry Zito, for his great resurgence this year, has been prone to having a few of these. In 2006 he seems to have avoiding having more than just a hiccup in the road, but two of them have come against Texas at home recently and the opener against the Yankees are just three I can name off the top of my head. Then again, Zito also nearly no hit Texas the last time out. So who knows what to expect these days.
I know people are tired of hearing this, but the A's do NOT have anything in the bag and this team can't take anything for granted down the stretch. The Angels will likely be 6.5 games back after their game against Baltimore tonight because Anaheim has Weaver pitching and the Orioles are featuring a nuclear Rodrigo Lopez.
This was also a case of the A's getting the hits at the wrong times today. They had 11 hits and four walks. Course the Rangers had six walks against Zito alone. It's obvious that Barry's good buddy FITZ might not believe in attending A's day games. Perhaps the sun is too much for Zito?
It obviously is for Jay Payton who railed on Oakland fans after the game:
The crowd booed the outfielder after Young's triple, and he still seemed peeved about it after the game.
"The first one cut on me, the second one got caught in the sun and the third one was a missle off the wall, but people want to boo me," Payton said with disdain. "All I do is bust my butt, but you have a bad day and a bunch of dumb people want to boo you. ... I thought it stunk."
Since the game wasn't televised, I can't comment on whether or not Payton deserved the booing. Maybe you guys could enlighten me on that one. But my general take on booing your own players is that it isn't really something I agree with. We aren't fickle New Yorkers or Bostonians, folks. Then again, people pay their way and they have a right to do what they want. I would just hope the fans would be above it.
The good news to take from the game? DJ had a couple of hits and Milton Bradley is alive, getting two hits today. Let's just hope that Los Kirk can continue his fine run of late tomorrow.
Zito said it best:
