A's are Louxers again in another snoozefest

I know the pronunciation doesn't quite fit, but oh well.

Angels 5, A's 3.

One positive from tonight's game: Matt Holliday hit his first home run in the Coliseum.

Oh, but it came in the bottom of the ninth when the A's were down by four. Up to that point, he'd scored their only run in the second after being hit by a pitch. In typical A's fashion of late they managed to get only one run on a gapper by Travis Buck. Jack Cust, who was at first, would only make it to third as Gregorio Petit grounded into a bases-loaded double play to kill that rally. That would be the first of three double plays for the A's in four innings.

Predictably, the A's struggled against Angels starter Shane Loux, managing just the one run against him in 7 innings. He allowed five hits and a walk, striking out three to get the win. Not even Dallas Braden could lead the A's to the win because he was unable to toss a shutout (prior to the meaningless Holliday homer). He was also victimized by poor defense and the kinds of hits and plays only the Angels seem to benefit from. Braden went 6 innings and took the loss, giving up 8 hits, 5 runs, 3 earned runs, a walk and 6 strikeouts, but I don't think the Angels hit more than a couple balls hard off him.

Jack Cust had a couple of hits, one for a double. Travis Buck doubled. Kevin Cameron allowed a hit in two innings. Brad Ziegler, who is still alive, worked a 1-2-3 ninth.

Texas comes to town for another two-game series tomorrow night.

That's all I've got.

Oh, I wish the A's had a real, healthy third baseman.  Hopefully one of these days they'll at least address this issue.  It's not going to be solved by Chavez/Garciaparra/Crosby/Hannahan/Pennington/Baisley/etc.