The A's played 10 innings tonight, and only scored when the pitcher bounced into a DP. That nicely sums up the A's offense, doesn't it?
Trevor Cahill fired a one-hitter over 6 IP, but was lifted after 83 pitches for not one, but two, pinch-hitters -- Hideki Matsui, who was immediately lifted for Conor Jackson -- with two outs and the potential go-ahead run at 3B. So Cahill went 6 innings instead of 8, Matsui did nothing and was not available in the late innings, Jackson batted once and left the game, and a parade of relievers, forced to pitch 4 shutout innings just to keep the game tied, ran out of steam when Brian Fuentes served up a game-winning hit to Aubrey Huff.
What else should I mention? Let's see. Wuertz was ordered to walk Huff with the go-ahead run on 2B in the 8th inning, to pitch to Buster Posey, challenging the old "Hey let's have Fuentes pitch to Miguel Cabrera instead of leaving Balfour in for one more hitter" as bone-headed move of the year. It worked, probably leading Bob Geren to double underline "Always walk guys to pitch to the other team's best hitter!!!" in his notebook.
Laughably, the A's end the night still just a game out of first place. That tells you a lot about the state of the AL West these days, and very little about the Oakland A's right now.
