Snake Ice: A’s swept in Arizona

Not much good to report today. 5th starter Travis Blackley performed at replacement level, which is pretty much what a 5th starter does. He threw 4.2 innings of 6-hit ball, throwing only 58% of his pitches for strikes. He was also struck by a line drive in the 2nd inning, but stayed in the game and appeared to be unscathed save for what will surely be a shiner on his left leg.

Rounding out the pitching, however, and on again a much brighter note, Sean Doolittle pitched again today. After allowing a double and a home run in Friday's outing, Doolittle rebounded by striking out 5 of the 6 batters he faced, including sluggers Upton and Goldschmidt. Indeed, it was another impressive outing for our 1B-turned-fireballer, who pumped fastball after fastball with movement to clueless (dare I say -- snakebitten?) Arizona hitters.

Offensively, the A's didn't muster much against Joe Saunders, who scattered 7 hits about as effectively as one can. It was the kind of frustrating performance against him that A's fans are used to from his days with the Angels.

The defense was really the key to this game, and it’s really one play. Cliff Pennington committed a costly error on a potential double play turn from Jemile Weeks off the bat of Jason Kubel. It was going to be close, as Weeks ranged to his right and threw off-balance to Pennington, but with Pennington’s arm it was definitely not out of the question to get Kubel. However, Pennington did nothing else but muff it, and the ball bounced away towards 3B. Rather than being out of the inning, Chris Young scored, and then Aaron Hill singled to left plating Goldschmidt and Upton. Boo indeed.

That’ll be all she wrote for the green and gold until Tuesday vs. the Colorado A’s, our sister team in Denver. Join dwishinsky for the game thread at the unusual start time of 5:40.