Pinch-posting for Nico, whose old age required him to get to bed early on a Friday night. At least that's the story he gave me. Let's try something a little different, shall we? An assortment of things from tonight's game, won in ten by the Chicago White Sox by a score of 8-7. Based on the subject, can you guess the theme?
* Brett Anderson allowing six runs four outs into the game
* The top of the second
* Jeff Gray warming up early before sitting back down for the rest of the night
* Non-baseball moment: Alex Smith's lone scoring drive in the 49ers exhibition game (hint: it's kind of a trick)
* Brett Anderson allowing seven runs in 5+ innings
* The Coliseum field a day after the first Raiders exhibition game (seriously, not enough time to at least paint green over the football markings? Wow)
* Jose Contreras and his first three innings
* Jose Contreras and his next 1 1/3 innings
* The bottom of the fourth
* Bill Hohn's call on Cliff Pennington's stolen base attempt in the fourth (hint: it hasn't been a good week for Hohn and this umpiring crew)
* The A's coming back from an early 6-0 deficit
* A.J. Pierzynski's hair
* Rajai Davis' stirrups (okay, so these last two aren't unique to tonight's game)
* The nights at the plate by Scott Podsednik, Gordon Beckham, Jermaine Dye, Ramon Castro, Scott Hairston, Ryan Sweeney and Mark Ellis
* The nights at the plate by Paul Konerko, Carlos Quentin, Adam Kennedy and Kurt Suzuki
* Nearly mirror images of Brad Ziegler and Jay Marshall warming up in the bullpen
* The A's against Octavio Dotel in the ninth
* Craig Breslow's third pitch to Alexei Ramirez in the tenth
* The inevitable tease
* Nomar Garciaparra's patience
* The final score
* No TV for tomorrow's 1:05 PM start (thanks, Fox & MLB)
