I believe an angel was put on earth to look after each of us. I believe Luke Hochevar is that angel. Hochevar has never pitched well against the A's, not surprising since he has rarely pitched well against anybody. Today, the A's broke their 9-game losing streak, and broke out with 9 runs, in a 9-3 shellacking of the Royals that had monkeys slipping off backs everywhere.
The A's scored in the 1st when Jemile Weeks led off with a triple and mooooooved home on Collin Cowgill's ground ball to SS. KC tied it in the bottom half, the A's retook the lead on a 4th inning passed ball, and then leading 2-1 the A's really went to work in the 5th.
Two on for Josh Reddick, and Reddick promptly banged a triple to right-center field to give the A's a 4-1 lead. Yoenis Cespedes blooped a single, one of 3 hits on the day for Cespedes, to make it 5-1. Kila Ka'aihue hit a booming double to score Cespedes and make it 6-1 -- yes, 4 runs all in one inning -- and according to Vince Cotroneo, Brandon McCarthy took the mound in the bottom of the 5th as the first A's starting pitcher all year to pitch with a 5-run lead.
There was a scare, when the Royals cut it to 6-2 and then should have made it 6-3 on a sacrifice fly but Jeff Francoeur was called out at the plate (assist to Collin Cowill -- or perhaps to Paul Schrieber). It did get to 6-3 on Grant Balfour's card, but the A's RH Aussie (not to be confused with their LH Aussie) limited the damage and the A's put the game away with a 3-run 8th highlighted by Adam Rosales' two-run single.
Why was Rosales in? OK, so today wasn't all good. After reaching base all 4 times with a triple, a single, and a pair of walks, Jemile Weeks left the game after apparently tweaking something north of his toes and south of his navel. Also, Cespedes continued to look utterly lost in LF, and he hasn't just looked bad. He's looked clueless. Hopefully, that's temporary because the A's, despite their 9 run, 10 hit outburst today, need all the help they can get on the pitching and defense side.
Ah, a win. Today the birds are chirping (I know, it's annoying as heck) and the sun is shining (it's too hot), flowers are blooming (do they not realize I have allergies?), and...Oh wait, sorry -- I just automatically got into "complain mode". The A's won! A baseball game! Life is good.
