Somehow you knew that Niemann would mark us as his latest victim. That the Rays would score in bulk if they shopped at Moscostco. That I would make joke after joke referencing large stores to try to avoid summarizing the game.
Well Matsui was awesome, again. With a single to run his hitting streak to 14 games and then a HR in the 9th, Hideki continued to hit better than .500 since the All-Star Break. And Coco Crisp HRed, a two-run shot, back when a two-run bomb could bring the A's to within 4-2. As for the rest...
Moscoso wasn't good, though he kept Tampa Bay off the board until the 4th inning. The A's inability to field comebackers was a theme tonight, and the Rays got on the board in the 4th when with the bases loaded and one out, Moscoso knocked down a ball back to the mound, looked everywhere but where the ball was, and then located the ball in the last place you'd look -- right at his feet -- getting the out at 1B as a run scored.
Moscoso was knocked out in the 5th by a three-run attack, culminating with an RBI single to LF on a ball Willingham -- or I should say a more skilled LFer -- could have gone for and caught. Moscoso lasted just 4.2 IP in what has an all too familiar refrain of late: Short outings by starting pitchers on a team without a true long reliever. Crisp's HR in the 6th cut the Rays' 4-0 lead in half, but having scored three runs in the 5th Tampa Bay decided it was so much fun they'd do it again in the 6th, this time off of Craig Breslow. All three runs were unearned due to an error on...Breslow, on a...comebacker.
That Breslow error was the 17th error charged to an A's pitcher this season, tops in the major leagues. Continuing the theme of laughable defense, Jemile Weeks treated two pop-ups as if he were a sheepdog, circling around them and herding them as they fell on the turf for "hits". Did you know that Weeks leads all 2Bmen with 9 errors, even though he wasn't called up until June 7th? I know, fun!!!
The A's, now 18-39 on the road, sport the 7th worst record in baseball and that's only thanks to a percentage point lead over Seattle. That's good for draft position and bad for the soul. A stick figure named McCarthy will try to break the A's four-game skid at 4:10pm tomorrow.
Oh, and BRANDON ALLEN HRed TODAY FOR THE RIVERCATS!!!!!! Brandon Allen shall come and save this franchise, and it will be good.