Only it wasn't hitting with the bat, it was hitting batters with the bases loaded, which scored two runs for the Blue Jays. A third came across on a wild pitch by Sean Gallagher who was wild for his three innings. And it wasn't against a great offensive club. The Jays didn't have Vernon Wells.
Regardless, Gallagher is still learning how to pitch and be consistent and I'm not going to throw in the towel on him because he has some very, very good stuff. He kept getting himself in trouble by not throwing early strikes which is why he wound up with 94 pitches in only three innings.
The positive on the pitching side was that Dan Meyer looked very good in his four innings of work. Meyer only allowed four hits and no walks in that time while striking out three. What was the most impressive to me is that his slider must be extremely deceptive because the Jays hitters kept swinging and missing at pitches that weren't strikes. Meyer isn't throwing 94-95 like he once was when he was one of the top rated pitching prospects in all of baseball, but I'm anxious to see if he can prove to be a good major league pitcher. It was interesting that they decided to use him tonight instead of someone DiNardo. It makes me wonder what is going to happen on Thursday. Will we be seeing Gio Gonzalez? It's currently listed as TBD. And if Gio does come up to pitch, could we possibly be seeing Meyer taking Gallagher's next turn in the rotation? I'm not sure but that's kind of what I'd like to see right now.
There really aren't any positives right now about the A's offense. I mean both on and off the field as Eric Chavez is having surgery on his shoulder again. At the same time, it's just best that he do it now. Get it done and have plenty of time to see if you can get right in time for 2009. Crosby did spoil Roy Halladay's day of making A's hitters look like little leaguers with a homer, but that was really all the A's could muster all night. It's not really a shocker and I think it's something we'll have to get used to for what remains of 2008.
