The game was on the radio, and I couldn’t see anything. Ironically enough, neither could anyone at the stadium, as the lights were so poor that Ray Fosse unleashed a tirade on them before the game. The umpires couldn’t see anything, the fielders were uncoordinated, and the runners were acting like blind mice.
Well, the good news is that Cahill went 7 innings with 2 Earned Runs and 5 K’s. That and no one appeared to die during the game.
The bad news after the jump.
You knew the game was not going to go well when the A’s entered the game in mid-season form, getting runners into scoring position early in the game and then failing to knock them in. But that’s not what made this game bad.
This was a game of bad base running and worse fielding. From Daric Barton getting caught in a rundown in the 2nd, and the Rockies continual goofs in a foolish attempt to undo many of the A’s errors, such as sending two runners to the same base, or doing a suicide squeeze without the batters knowledge.
The A’s ended up losing 4-1 (only 2 earned), to go along with 4 errors.
Highlights of the game we’d all like to forget?
In the 5th inning, between getting distracted by velvet cupcakes and cookies supplied by Mrs. Fosse, Trevor Cahill gave himself an unearned run by throwing an easy ball over Cliff Pennington’s head to allow a run to score. That was followed by a failed suicide squeeze, which caught the runner at third in a rundown and helped ease the A’s out of the inning, with Iannetta, who got aboard during Cahill’s error, reaching third, but not scoring.
In the 7th, another error, this time of the Umpiring persuasion came about with a dropped throw at 1st by Daric Barton, who caught the ball, got the runner out, and then dropped the ball. The runner was called safe, and Bob Geren, determined to make this game memorable despite our collective wills to forget, making it his first Spring Training ejection of his career, and first of the 2011 season. But at least he wasn’t lonely, as Daric Barton was ejected as well between innings, much to Fosse’s F-ing delight.
Luckily for the A’s, Iannetta decided that Ian Stewart was lonely at third, and decided to join him on the bag, to get out and help the A’s (eventually) out of that embarrassing inning.
What else can I say? The 8th saw more errors, this time a bad throw from Cliff Pennington to Conor Jackson to allow another unearned run, and a another bad base running blunder by the Rockies when Morales got caught in a delayed steal attempt.
Sad News Fact of the Day: The Rockies and Diamondbacks are averaging 12k a game during Spring Training in their shared facility, all sell outs. And that makes me jealous for the A’s regular season.
