It was quite a bit of baseball to follow today, as despite the rain, the A's managed to get two games in this afternoon. Both games saw their share of runs, and when it was all said and done, the A's lost one and tied the other. Not one of their finest pitching performances, but we did see a fair share of offense.
A's vs. Royals
Travis Buck was a late-scratch from this game due to dizziness. Not helping your cause much there, Travis.
This game started out promisingly enough--just like the beginning of the Indians season in Major League. Rajai Davis walked to lead off the game, but was promptly picked off first. That would prove to be costly; after Gabe Gross stroked a two-out single, Jack Cust hit a homerun that didn't just seem to leave the stadium; it actually LEFT the stadium--estimated to be the longest homerun in Surprise history.
The A's piled on in the second with an Adrian Cardenas single that scored Corey Brown (who was 3-4 with a walk, 2 RBI's and 2 runs scored on the afternoon) and a 2-run triple from Eric Sogard, bringing the score to 5-0 A's.
As long as Vin Mazzaro was in, that lead was more than enough. Mazzaro threw three innings of one hit, one walk ball, but the pitchers who followed him were a disaster, to put it mildly. Blevins allowed three hits, a walk, and three runs in his inning, and Mortensen allowed two hits, two walks and four earned runs in his two innings.
Meanwhile, back-to-back-to-back doubles by Cust/Powell/Brown brought in two more runs for the A's, and RBI singles by Cardenas, Sogard, and Brown helped right the ship after the Blevins/Mortensen icebergs, but after Fernando Hernandez pitched a scoreless inning, Meloan allowed two more runs in his two-thirds of an inning, and Demel lost the game with his four hit, two run ninth. He had some help with the wind and McPherson's defense. The A's scored 10 runs (YAY!), but allowed 11 (BOO!).
A's vs. Rangers
In this Buancast for the ages, we learned a lot about American Idol, but we also overheard an interesting discussion between the broadcasters about the possibility of Fox/Chavez splitting time at first, leaving Daric Barton in Triple-A. Very interesting, indeed.
Trevor Cahill got off to a rocky start, and never really recovered; allowing 4 hits, 1 walk, and 3 ER in his 2 innings (he did strike out 3). McBeth replaced him with a solid scoreless inning.
The A's were down three runs early, but they hung a 5-spot on Harden and the Rangers before very long. Kouzmanoff hit a three-run homer to score Sweeney and Crisp, and Michael Taylor picked up his first RBI on a single.
The combination of Wright and Souza allowed four runs in 3 innings, and Ziggy allowed one run in his one inning, but the A's offense battled back for a tie. capped by a Max Stassi homerun (he would later leave the game after being hit on the foot).
We do it again tomorrow...as Buan would say, "So long from Phoenix, Arizona!"
