Rangers Overtake A's With The Greatest Of E's

Let's see...There was sizEmorE ranging to his left to field a ground ball, spinning, and bouncing a throw to 1B as Andrus scored all the way from 2B. There was pEnnington charging a bouncer, double-clutching, then making an ill-advised, off-line and late throw to 1B. There was wEEks, ranging far into RF to prevent dEjEsus from catching a fly ball. There was wEEks kicking a tailor-made DP ball, which pEnnington got to in time to get one out, except he couldn't pick it up. Kind of like sizEmorE trying to field Gentry's bunt barehanded, and picking up everything but the ball.

Are you sensing a pattern? Errors charged as errors, and a couple "plays not made" charitably ruled base hits, made each A's pitcher's line look a lot worse than it actually was.

It started well, with Josh Willingham tying a career high with his 24th HR, a two-shot shot in the 1st that gave Oakland the lead until, well, they had to pitch and play defense. Texas tied it in the bottom of the 1st, aided by an error on starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy, who only escaped mention in the first paragraph because neither his first name nor his last name contains the letter 'E'. Neither does Coco nor Crisp, but that didn't stop the A's CFer from taking a poor route at a critical time on an Elvis Andrus drive. Hideki Matsui's 2-run HR in the 8th provided the A's with their other runs, and in between A's hitters tried the strategy of taking lots of strikes. It didn't work.

Remember, tomorrow's game has been moved to a 1:11pm start PDT. Apparently they want to showcase the A's on national TV. Cue up Bill Cosby: "Fielders do the darndest things!!! Haawww!!!"