Breaking News:
The A’s Win a Game!
The A’s Win a Game!
The A’s Win a Game!
Millions (or at least hundreds) left in disbelief at the news.
Real life posters expressed shock and amazement. These are real quotes, not actors:
I left my desk to take some packages to the post office
and someone replaced the A’s while I was gone!
--Nick
After careful consideration,
I’ve decided that I like grand slams when the A’s hit them.
-Nico
I am confused by all these runs and hits.
Who are these strange men wearing the green and gold? They can’t be the A’s…
-Kyli
So many good things to say about today’s game; which was much needed after this horrible week of baseball, but I’ll stick to the major highlights.
Trevor Cahill was fantastic today. He not only notched his very first MLB win, but pitched a full seven innings while doing it. He allowed five hits; two doubles by Young; two by Byrd, and his only blemish on the day; a homerun to Davis. More importantly, he struck out four and didn't walk anyone. This could be explained by an aggressive Rangers’ offense or a wide strike zone, but this is the ratio that he badly needed to correct.
The game started like all painful losses do; locked up in a pitching duel where you just know that Cahill will pitch seven scoreless and the A’s can’t score for him. For the first three innings, this was true. But then came the fourth inning.
It started with an innocent enough single by Kurt Suzuki, who did nothing in the 2-hole except go 3 for 5 to raise his average to .327. Giambi and Holliday followed with walks; bringing up Cust with the bases loaded. To quote GameDay, “Jack Cust hits a grand slam to right field” and the A’s finally, finally get the big hit. Hannahan followed with a RBI double to complete the 5-spot.
The A’s weren’t done yet. In the very next inning, Suzuki singled again to lead off the inning (maybe someone should have been batting higher in the order?), Giambi singled, and Matt Holliday followed with a homerun of his own--his fourth on the season. Bobby Crosby, who would go 3 for 4 on the day (with 2 doubles), would drive in the A’s ninth--and final--run.
Kevin Cameron would pitch a scoreless eighth for the A’s, working out of a big jam; stranding two Texas runners at 2nd and 3rd, and Brad Ziegler started the ninth; looking for some work as he continues to recover. It didn’t work out exactly like we all hoped; Ziggy was hit hard. Three runs would score in the ninth (2 earned for Ziggy), bringing the score to 9-4 A’s, but the game was never in doubt. Bailey locked down the win, and the crowd of 5,000 went wild.
A couple of side notes; I’m not saying that our announcers aren’t watching the games, but when they spend the first three innings talking about how the A’s young, inexperienced pitching staff is costing them games, I just wonder how they can ignore how truly awful the A’s offense has been. This is easily the highest scoring game the A’s have had so far this season, and wow, was it needed. Rainbows, and puppies.
So, does anyone think that maybe the day games help the offense? Is it even remotely possible that the unusually bitter cold nights at the Coliseum have hurt the bats thus far?
The A’s finally get into double digit wins at 10, and pick up a game on the Rangers. They look to put together a little winning streak against Toronto tomorrow night at 7:05. Let’s hope the offense remembers how it felt today.
