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Remember how this morning (yes, hours ago) I said that following a loss it can feel like the A's just wasted everybody's time and the next step is destroying nearby furniture? Well, today's no different. Not because the A's were held scoreless, or struck out 27 times or some other nonsense, but because, again, they played just poorly enough to lose. They teased us early on with back to back home runs and holding a 2-0 lead for the first half of the game, and they even bothered to tease us at the end of the game, scoring one in the ninth to keep the deficit at a single tally. The A's were even courteous enough to put the tying run on first with two outs in the ninth, bringing the leading run to the plate.
But guess what, green and gold? The point is not to tease. It is to please, and I'm not pleased. While were pleased that Emil "Don't Call Me RBI Machine" Brown got 2 of the A's 3 RBI and that Greg Smith still shows an unparalleled ability to pick runners off base (any base, it appears), the end result is still the same. You lost. And it was in the same lackluster fashion. Bobby Crosby posting a double play in a critical situation, and ending the game with a weak grounder to the 3rd to close it out.
The A's of recent years built their reputation around getting on base, taking pitches and wearing out opposing pitchers, but the team didn't get a base on balls until there were already two out in the ninth. They did, however, manage to again rack up a good number of strikeouts, posting 7, thanks to James Shields keeping batters unsteady. The lack of runners on base meant that when the A's did hit home runs, they were solo shots, and Shields was strong enough to enter the 9th inning before giving way to Percival. That's not how you wear a guy out. But it's how you wear me out.
And despite my best intentions, Brooks Conrad has extended his hitless streak to 10 at bats to start off his MLB career, racking up 2 more K's for a total of 5. Sorry dude, that's not even a tease.
The A's have tomorrow off and resume teasing us Friday against Texas at 7:05 PM. Maybe the roster will be unchanged. Maybe not. There's my tease for you.
