12 runs, 16 hits and a pitcher tossed for defending his teammate. Yes, folks, we can officially call the A's a winning ballclub again at least for 24 hours or so.
Mike Piazza was the big contributor tonight with five runs batted in, although that was still only HALF of what Garret Anderson had earlier this week again the Yankees. The A's scored 12 runs tonight, which was less than HALF of what the Rangers scored against the Orioles last night. Buncha losers.
Seriously though, every single player who started the game for the A's had a hit. Nothing like some bad Rays pitching to make sure that the A's bats got enough run support tonight for Chad Gaudin, who also went one game over .500 for the season. He had 10 strikeouts and only two walks, but that isn't saying much because the Rays are a team that likes to swing the bat. The A's were also able to turn three double plays in support of Gaudin. Could it be that Blanton, Gaudin and Loaiza are all solid contributors to the rotation now on a regular basis? Gaudin has had a terrible August and he'll have to do this a few more times before I'm convinced that it's real, but the A's pitching and bullpen suddenly look somewhat formidable again. Especially when they're willing to throw at you in response to you chuckin at one of our guys.
I must say that this is an aspect of the game I like. Maybe it's just my id side overpowering my rational side, but I just want vengeance whenever I see one of our guys get plunked. I honestly don't think that Calero was doing what he did on purpose, so that part never makes sense to me. You accidentally hit our guy, so we're going to intentionally plunk your guy. I mean, I've seen too many A's lost this year to something like that. Course it would've been better if Casilla could've actually done it.
Any way, we're north of .500 now, hopefully for a little longer than a day. It's been a long season with a ton of adversity, but it's nice to see this team playing some great baseball in August. Even if it isn't enough to vault them into a playoff race.
