Man, wasn't the bullpen supposed to be the unquestioned strength of this team? Alan Embree surrenders a three-run bomb whereas he was lights out at the beginning of the year. Huston Street wobbled, but thanks to Melvin Mora bunting for who knows what reason, Street was able to get out of it.
I was most definitely holding my breath at the end when Tejada was there with the bases loaded. How many times did we see him come through for the A's in that very situation? But the A's are obviously pretty confident in knowing that they understand how to get Tejada out, despite the fact that Street couldn't walk Miggy or the game would've been tied.
I'm the happiest tonight for Danny Haren (sorry, Putnam), who must've been sweating out the end of that game, wondering if his gem was going to be wasted just like Gaudin's was a night earlier. And thank goodness that Swisher unloaded on that pitch and wound up with long homers from both sides of the plate. Am I mistaken, or didn't Swisher do the same exact thing before in Baltimore? Maybe I'm not remembering it properly, but I could've sworn that's a yard he appears to like. A lot. The A's need Swisher to be a quality hitter right now more than ever with all the of injury issues they are dealing with.
Congratulations to Danny Putnam, who collected his first major league hit tonight. Welcome to the show.
One other note...as I told many of you before the season started, moving to Southern California was going to have its advantages. I've been able to see every single A's game so far this year, either live or on Tivo. Last year at this time, I'd probably seen less than half of the A's games. That is both good and bad. Good in that I feel a lot more in touch with my favorite team than ever. Bad because I have often had to listen to the worst announcers in baseball. I've been subjected to the Angels guys six times already. The White Sox guys three times and the Yankees' Michael Kay twice. But it has also been a pleasure to hear TV teams like the Rangers ones and the Orioles ones (Gary Thorne is a class act and one of the all-time best hockey announcers as well). Not all of the announcers are idiots who utter things like, "You know, Hud (Angels announcer Rex Hudler), Vlad Guerrero is like the Angels' A-Rod." Uh, what exactly was Steve Physioc trying to say with that? Was it just that Vlad is the Angels best player? Um, the sky is also blue, dude.
Any way, it's nice to get a win for Haren so he won't have to hear anything about "wearing it" in the clubhouse tonight...
