LaPorta Chopper Better Than A's Rockets

If you're interested in how luck plays a part in everyday baseball, contrast the game-winning hit with the A's top of the 8th. Suzuki scorches a liner speared by Jason Donald at SS, Sweeney hits a rocket to RF right at Kearns, Cust walks, and Rosales cracks a bid for extra bases down the 3B line into the glove of Jhonny Peralta.

So it was perhaps fitting that Matt LaPorta won the game with a chopper over the mound and into CF, over Craig Breslow, perfectly splitting Cliff Pennington and Mark Ellis.

Two points of interest in the bottom of the 10th. One is that Travis Hafner doubled against a "no-doubles" defense and possibly because of a no-doubles defense. Coco Crisp did cut his hit to right-center field off but he was so deep that he could not stop even the lead-footed Hafner from getting into second base. Also, the intentional walk to Austin Kearns is what allowed the batting order to roll as far as to LaPorta. I'm not questioning the decision to walk Kearns, just pointing out that when you issue an IBB it's not who's on deck but rather who's up after that you need to consider.

Cliff Pennington was a true bright spot tonight with a single, double, triple, 2 RBI and a couple of outstanding plays at SS. Kevin Kouzmanoff extended his 0-fer streak to 28 ABs and continues to pull everything in his sincere effort to set a major league record for bouncing into around-the-horn DPs.

As for Clay Mortensen (6 IP, 4 runs, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 K), he hung too many offspeed pitches but was otherwise quite effective and did a great job of settling down after serving up a 2-run HR two batters into the game. He wasn't great but he certainly earned another big league start if one is available.