Well, aside from the Spring Training revolving lineups, if you closed your eyes and imagined really hard, you could almost see this afternoon's contest as an in-season baseball game. The A's took the game with a respectable score of 4-3, even earning a save opportunity in the process.
Bobby Cramer started today's game and pitched a perfect 1, 2, 3 first inning. The A's offense responded right off the bat, scoring two in the bottom of the inning. It started as the most promising of innings; Ellis singled, Suzuki walked, and DeJesus was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Unfortunately, Hideki Matsui did his best Kevin Kouzmanoff impression and grounded into a double-play, which scored only one run. Kouzmanoff promptly took issue with my criticism and followed with an RBI single to score the A's second run.
The A's would add another run in the fourth inning on an RBI single by Ellis, who knocked in Jai Miller after he singled and stole second. Kurt Suzuki would single in what would be the winning run in the sixth.
Meanwhile, the combination of Cramer, DeHoyos, Ross, and Devine would keep the Indians off the board, but Josh Outman would be tagged with three hits, three walks, and two earned runs. Lord Farquhar allowed one more, but Ziggy came into the ninth inning for the save and slammed the door.
We do it again tomorrow; I'll be there on Friday! I'll take pictures.
Continue the "alleged" Coco Crisp discussion below.