"at Colorado" often means football scores like today's 14-7 slugfest, but the game wasn't at Coors Field so it's a bit of a stretch to blame the altitude for the struggles A's pitchers had after being staked to a 5-0 lead.
The best news on the pitching front was that Trevor Cahill seemed immune to the difficulties of the day, tossing 3 solid innings of 2 hit, 1 run baseball. Cahill did not record a strikeout but still appears to have only helped his cause of claiming a spot in the A's rotation - or at least at AAA to await the first "flat tire."
Matt Holliday, facing his former team for the first time, collected 2 of the A's 8 hits and is now batting a clean .409 for the spring. Did you catch the pun there?
Up 5-1 entering the bottom of the 4th, Oakland gave up "5-spots" in each of the 4th and 5th innings - oops. Culprit #1 was Chris Schroder, who can't afford to have too many stinkers, but who allowed all 5 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks in 0.2 IP. Culprit #2 was Sean Gallagher, touched for the identical 5 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks in 0.2 IP. Gallagher may still be weak from the flu that canceled his scheduled start on Sunday; if not, his outing hardly inspires one to contemplate that he could be in line to start on Opening Day in Anaheim.
My question to you as you ponder today's action: Here on March 10th, in a part of the season (spring training) that clearly matters less for players assured of roster spots, does an outing like Gallagher's cause you any concern? Or is it just another in the endless string of "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!" March developments that always only seems relevant until the real season begins?
