After two rewrites, I think I learned my lesson: don't try to cheat on writing game recaps early because something will probably happen to foul it up.
This was a deflating loss and the truth is I really don't feel like going into a bunch of detail about it so I'll just use the nice little bullet point feature:
- Dallas Braden set down the first 14 batters he faced but there was an underlying sense that the offense would fail to do anything all night long.
- Homers by Jason Giambi (three runs) and Bobby Crosby (solo) in the 8th actually put the A's in front 4-2 (and it was another game where all of their offense came and went in one inning in a few blinks of the eye).
- The Dodgers tied it right back up in the bottom of the inning against Michael Wuertz, Craig Breslow and Andrew Bailey.
- An error by Orlando Cabrera in the bottom of the 10th looked bad for the A's and it almost got worse when a double play completed by a Giambi tag was missed by the first base ump before a brief conference led to it being overturned, correcting the call. This is something you rarely ever see. Unfortunately, Matt Kemp lined a clean single to right between first and second to make a hard-luck loser out of Brad Ziegler.
Once again, a strong outing by a starting pitcher is ruined by overall poor hitting, relief pitching and defense. It's getting to be a tired act and so are the positive vibes Bob Geren will surely be giving off in his postgame interview. Yes, Bob, we get it. You're a rah-rah guy, an optimist to a fault. At some point it's not a matter of tipping your cap to the other pitcher, telling us that the breaks just didn't go your way, or at least you're pleased with the effort the guys gave tonight.
If there's one thing I'm waiting for, it's a postgame blowup filled with expletives about how crappy the offense is and how the bullpen needs to get it together. These ballplayers are adults. They've been called out before at some point in their careers by someone. It won't hurt to do it again. Then again, maybe when you're just a figurehead manager it doesn't really matter what you say.
Would it make a real difference? Probably not, but on some level it'd be satisfying. As mikev said, FML. As for me, time to play the new Ghostbusters game.
