Pterodreadful: Cahill Shelled Like a Raw Oyster as M's Roll, 8-4

Yeah.

Oh, well.

Of course it is just one game, but you have to wonder WTF is going on with Trevor Cahill, who lasted a whopping 4+ IP vs. an offense previously so anemic it makes ours -- even ours from the first half -- look like Murderer's Row.  And make no mistake, he looked not-at-all-comfortable doing it, stretching his back again and again and making us wonder if there's some sort of medical issue afoot (or aback, or anelbow, or asomething) to explain the fidgety frumpiness we saw tonight and yes, the precipitous falloff we've seen from him since his excellent start to 2011.

I really hope Trevor's OK and not injured in some way he is concealing.

It all started awesomely enough, with the A's loading the bases on hits by the first 3 batters, before two Ks (looking! who knew?) and a lineout to left sent them out for the bottom of the inning empty-handed.  The M's had a little threat in their half but failed to score, which was not the case in the 2nd when things just fell apart on Cahill, who by the way now leads the AL in walks.  Franklin Gutierrez and Brendan Ryan (who always seems to kill the A's) drove in runs before Dustin Ackley hit a ball in front of Ryan Sweeney, who made an ill-advised lunge at it and missed, clearing the previously-loaded bases for a 5-0 M's advantage.  A Gojira sac fly made it 5-1, but the M's immediately tacked on single runs in their half of the next two innings to make it 7-1 and essentially decide the outcome.  Yeah, Kurt Suzuki flew solo in the ninth, but by then it was way past time to write this and go argue with my roommate some more.

Blake Beavan is rightfully astonished that the A's let him off the hook in the top of the first tonight.

Vince Cotroneo reports as I write this that Cliff Pennington left the game in which his 15-game hit streak ended with a diagnosis of... I can't even believe I am going to type this... Bell's Palsy.  I know Bell's Palsy very well from when an ex of mine had it -- strangely, this very same ex took me out to sushi just last night after many moons of not hearing from him -- and basically the long and short of it is that your facial muscles seize up and cannot relax, with your face becoming contorted and messed up and paralyzed, sometimes permanently or for long stretches of time.  Anyway it generally will bollocks up your life real nice like, so I dunno what to say except I hope Cliff's OK and I can't believe I just typed what I had to type.  OK, one of our players -- oops, I mean the hottest hitter in the AL up to tonight -- came out of this game with Bell's Palsy.  Jesus.

Tomorrow is another flambé.

OK, good thoughts, good thoughts: the Oakland version of the Athletics collected its 60,000th hit tonight, on Matsui's infield hit in that ill-fated first.  This Norberto kid came in and looked a little nervous but was hitting 94 on the gun, always tasty from a lefty.  He wiggled out of the jam Cahill left for him in the 4th after a shaky beginning where an inherited run scored, settling down reasonably.  Ummmm, neither Brandon Allen or Gio Gonzalez has Bell's Palsy, as far as I know.  There's another game tomorrow night when the A's have another walk in the park vs. King Felix, woo-hoo!  Join Dan at the appointed Hour of the Robots and I'll see y'all soon.