Coco Leads A's Comeback; A's Take Series from M's

If you judged Gio and the A's based on the first two innings of tonight's game, it's a wonder you made it to the third. Russell Branyan greeted Gio with a 2-run bomb in the first inning, and after the A's went down 1, 2, 3 in their first chance, it looked to be a long night for the fans and a short night for Gio. The second inning was torture; after Tuiasosopo homered to increase Seattle's lead to 3-0, the Mariners would collect a hit-by-pitch, a single, a wild pitch and a walk to load the bases for Branyan again. Luckily, he would fly out to end the inning, at least giving the A's a chance to come back.

And then something funny happened.

The Mariners would not score again, and our fearless heroes would. Four runs, in fact, just enough to come back and win the game. Of course, the fact that Seattle is not very good helped the A's cause, but when it was all said and done, the A's would take the game--and the series--from the Mariners.

Forgetting about his rocky first two innings, Gio Gonzalez would nearly pitch seven innings (Breslow would record the final out of the seventh), striking out nine against only two walks. It could be argued that Tolleson could have helped Gio finish the inning had he come up with a ball hit at him, but Gio did enough to earn the win.

The A's got right back in the game in the third inning as a single from Tolleson and a homerun from Coco Crisp (can we keep him?) pulled them within 3-2. There were several annoying, frustrating teAses thrown in for good measure, but Seattle finally felt sorry enough for the A's in the sixth.

Ellis doubled to start the inning and Rajai dropped down a great bunt for a hit, putting runners at first and third with no one out. Since you KNOW the A's weren't going to score there, it became only a matter of how they would ruin the golden opportunity. The next batter, Matt Carson, hit into a sure double-play, but since Ellis was running on contact, he was easily tagged out. However, the A's still had two on with one out. They pulled off a double steal (Davis/Carson) to put runners at second and third, and Tolleson walked to load the bases with one out. See above. Pennington tried to hit into an inning-ending double play, but he was foiled by Seattle and Rajai scored to tie the game. The A's hero, Coco Crisp, singled and knocked in what would be the winning run. Believe it or not, the A's pulled off another double steal in the inning (Pennington/Crisp) right before Barton grounded out to end it.

That would be all the A's would need. Breslow only needed 5 pitches to get through the eighth and Bailey blew the Mariners away in the ninth, striking out two.

And the A's win another game. We do it again Friday against the Red Sox; I'll be your host.