An Imperfect Ten: A's Fall in Melvin's Debut

Well, let’s face it, when your starting pitcher’s line looks this:

…you’re not going to win too many ballgames.

Unfortunately for the A’s those numbers belonged to Trevor Cahill, and they added up to a tenth consecutive defeat, tied for the team’s fourth-longest losing skid since they landed in Oakland in 1968.

You could say that Cahill was a victim of carefully placed hits by the Chicago White Sox tonight, and you’d be right.  Of course, bases-loaded walks in the second and third innings certainly did not help his cause.  Too many of those will make you sleep on your side of the bed.

As has been the case far too often lately, most of the attention centered not on the diamond, but in the dugout.  And it was quite the inauspicious beginning for Bob Melvin, who must be wondering what he has gotten himself into.

When it looked as if the A’s might make a game of it, thanks to a 2-run homer off the bat of Hideki Matsui in the seventh, the Sox put up their third 3-spot of the night in the eighth, making the last inning nothing more than a formality.

Everyone in Chicago’s starting lineup got at least one hit, the big blows courtesy of their big boppers, Adam Dunn and Paul Konerko, both of whom went deep with a man on base.  Those runs alone were nearly enough to make a winner out of Mark Buehrle who scattered seven hits in as many innings.

Maybe a rain-out won’t be such a bad thing.