Lord, this team will be the death of me! Before we get to the fun, want to get a little teary?
From MLB.com, here's what Suzuki had to say:
I would like to thank the Oakland A’s organization for eight memorable years. They gave me the opportunity to fulfill my dream of playing in the big leagues and for that I am eternally grateful. To all of my coaches, teammates, clubhouse staff and members of the media, the bonds that we’ve made during my time here will always be cherished and never be forgotten. I’d also like to thank the City of Oakland and the greater Bay Area for embracing me and my family as one of your own. Last but not certainly not least, I’d like to thank the Oakland A’s fans for supporting me during my career.
Aloha
-Kurt Suzuki
We wish you the best of luck; say 'hi' to Gio for us!
When all was said and done tonight, the much-anticipated debut of Dan Straily was all but forgotten as Ryan Cook blew a 3-run save with two outs in the ninth to sent the game to extra innings; it took the A's another six innings to win, dodging numerous bullets along the way.
Tonight's TV announcer, Scott Hatteberg (he's baaaaaack!) compared Dan Straily to Mike Mussina in velocity; i.e. effective without being a flame-thrower. Straily throws in the low 90's, but somehow records the strikeouts.
Straily struggled to get out of the first, going deep in the count, but he put it all together after that. Scattering 5 hits over his six innings, walking one and striking out 5, Straily's debut was everything the A's could have hoped for. The Blue Jays would score only one run against him, on a sac fly by Rajai Davis on a 1-2 mistake. He was very solid, and debuted a hell of a change up. The A's got on the board in the second inning after Cespedes beat out an infield single (he would have two on the day before leaving injured) and Carter walked. Brandon Inge, who for all the world looks like he cannot hit, somehow is perfect when men are on base, and tonight was no exception. He wasted no time in banging out an RBI single to give the A's the lead.
Jonny Gomes padded the lead for the rookie Straily with a solo Gomer in the third inning, giving the A's a 2-0 lead.
After the Blue Jays scored in the fourth, Chris Carter got the run right back for Straily in his at-bat leading off the bottom of the fourth with his ninth homerun of the season, a towering moonshot. The A's have now surpassed last year's homerun total. In the first week of August. Without Josh Willingham.
Jonny Gomes nearly hit it out again in the fifth inning after a single by Weeks and a fielder's choice by Coco, but he came up two feet short, instead settling for a long single, moving Crisp to third. Reddick drove the run in with a sac fly, and weirdly, Gomes thought he was fast, and was out trying to tag up from first to second to end the inning
The A's had a chance to add on in the eighth as Coco singled and reached second on an error. Gomes failed to move him to third, so he stole the base. Unfortunately, Reddick failed to get him home. Spoiler alert: The A's would regret that.
All was clicking along for the A's nicely as Grant Balfour pitched the seventh and the eighth, dominating the Jays. Cook came in for the three run save opportunity and struck out the first two batters of the inning. Everyone was happy, just another A's win, right? Except a single, single, homerun tied the game in a blink of an eye. The whole Coliseum was shocked into silence. What? This is firework night! Where is Cespedes and why didn't we win before the sun came up?
Jerry Blevins got two outs in the tenth, and was replaced by the new A, Pat Neshek, who ended the inning. The A's should have won in the bottom of the tenth as Weeks singled, Coco walked, a wild pitch moved the runners to second and third with one out, and Gomes walked to load the bases. But for the second time tonight, Reddick failed to get a runner home from third with less than two outs, and he struck out looking. This should have brought up Cespedes, but he mysteriously left the game in the bottom of the eighth, later diagnosed with a right wrist sprain. Obviously, this is literally the worst thing that could happen to the A's; nearly everyone else is replaceable. Michael Taylor pinch hit for Cespy the first time and struck out, and Brandon Moss pinch hit for Cespy in the 11th and grounded out, the throw barely dug out at first.
Neshek pitched a gorgeous 11th, and after the A's failed to score again, Doolittle took over for the 12th. He got the first out, but gave up a single on an 0-2 pitch, followed by a double. Moss butchered the ball in left, and the runner was sent home. Inge was playing at exactly the right spot, and relayed the throw home after it missed he cutoff. Norris tagged out the runner and the A's lived on.
It's a really long story, one that I cannot type on an iPad, but the Blue Jays ended up losing the DH after running out of players and had to have their pitcher, Loup, bat. Hilariously enough (if anything is funny after 5 hours of watching a game you should have won in the ninth), Loup's 6-3 putout was a carbon copy of most A's at-bats after the eighth.
Travis Blackley, who was jilted from today's start, probably was the pitching star, he threw three scoreless innings (13, 14, and 15) and got the win. Sogard saved him in the 15th, with runners on first and second, he managed to not only stop a ball from reaching left field, but also threw the runner out at third with a Superman diving throw. That was all the A's seem to need in way of motivation.
Jemile Weeks wasted no time in hitting the hardest ball in many innings down the right field line, running for a triple all the way. Coco did what the A's just couldn't do earlier and promptly put up a sac fly.
A's win. Pie for everyone! baseballgirl out.
