Dust Off Your Brooms

Tomorrow the A's go for the sweep, for they won today against the Tampa Bay Giants, 4-2!

The game started out with some high stress batters, as Moscoso struggled, but retired, the first two batters on ground balls to first base after some very long at bats. He then proceeded to play keep away in the top of the 2nd, as with two outs and a man on first, Cliff Pennington bobbled a grounder to short, and threw poorly to Weeks at 2nd. Moscoso walked the next batter, but got out of it when Stewart flew out to center to end the bases loaded threat. The A's decided to try to one up the Giants, but came up short, stranding two runners in the bottom of the inning.

Moscoso got out of a 4th inning, 2 on jam, but the 5th inning did him in. On a routine ground ball to third, Sizemore caught his cleat in the dirt (thank you U2) and botched the throw to first, allowing the lead off runner to get aboard. Torres walked, to make it first and second, and the defense demon hit the A's again. On a sacrifice bunt, Moscoso tried to rush the throw, and get the runner at third. He did beat the runner with the throw, but the throw was wide of third, allowing the runner to score. Another run would come around on a fly ball to Rosales in Left by Huff, which allowed Torres to score when the ball was cut off by Barton.

Staples would make up for it, however. In the bottom of the inning, the A's would have their revenge. Sizemore led off with a single up the middle. After a fly out, Barton hit a double to knock Sizemore in. A batter later, Pennington would hit a double to score Barton, and after a wild pitch moving Pennington to 3rd, a walk to Crisp and a stolen base, Hideki Matsui came through with his second hit, a single past the diving second baseman to knock in Pennington and Crisp. Matsui was stranded on second, but it was all the runs the A's would need.

The rest of the game went rather smoothly after an interesting 6th inning, involving Nate Schierholtz hitting a lead off double, only to get caught in between 2nd on a grounder to short. After Crawford singled to center, advancing Rowand to third, Joey Devine delivered two clutch strikeouts to end the threat.

And that really was that. Fuentes, after a leadoff walk, struck out the side in the 7th. Balfour, after allowing a single, cleared through the 8th, and Bailey faced the minimum, although with a GIDP to end the game.

So we head to tomorrow's game against the Gnats looking for the sweep. Oh, sweet revenge.