DLD 5/30/2013 - Imminent Sweep Edition

The most controversial part of yesterday's game was the seemingly botched fan interference play in the 6^th off the bat of Gregor Blanco. Jane Lee wrote about crew chief Gerry Davis' decision in her recap:

When approached by a pool reporter, crew chief Davis explained, "The ball went over the bag, I called it fair, there was spectator interference, whenever there is spectator interference you award the runners the bases you feel they would have had had there not been interference.

"Brian basically made the decision because he's the home-plate ump, and he has the whole field in his perspective, so he made the decision as to whether the runners would score. And if any of the other umpires have anything different on the field, then we would get together if we need to. But we were all pretty sure that was the case."

Of opting to eject Hale, Knight said, "I warned him a couple times to stop yelling at me, and he did not heed my warning and he was ejected."

Donaldson apparently enjoys the atmosphere. From Steve Kroner on the A's beat last night for the Chronicle:

Donaldson said he enjoyed some good-natured back-and-forth with supporters of the orange and black.

"The fans were just crushing me," Donaldson said. "They were all over me the entire time - and I love that. It's awesome. Giants fans have a lot of passion for their team."

Before the bottom of the seventh, Donaldson booted the practice grounder first baseman Nate Freiman had thrown to him.

"Now, they're all over me," Donaldson said. "I'm still talking back to them. Then I make the play (on Posey's liner) and my first reaction was like, (posing) ‘I can make the play, you know.'"

That last play he referenced was one of the best you'll see all year from a 3B.

Also, in case you missed the news earlier, Casey Pratt from CSN is off the A's beat and is doing something new called Press Pass. He explained in his blog on Monday:

As a beat writer your duty is to chase hard news, but I have always much preferred tweaking the way our coverage is presented. Through my relationships with the team, I want to bring you a different brand of coverage. You'll get to know the players better, go behind the scenes more, and after numerous invitations, I'll finally get to spend some time in the right field bleachers.

Paul [Gutierrez] will handle the hard news and I will handle the rest. I'm going to get viral, interactive, crazy, and try and change the game.

As one of his first acts, we have a video on the contents of the Hello Kitty backpack Sean Doolittle carries around as the youngest bullpen member.

Josh Reddick's rehab appears to be going well.

Outfielder Josh Reddick made it through nine innings and four at-bats Wednesday in a rehab stint without any lingering effects from the sore right wrist that landed him on the 15-day disabled list May 8.

To that end, Melvin said, the plan calls for Reddick to play another game Thursday, as the designated hitter, and then be activated in time for Friday's game against the Chicago White Sox.

Hopefully he's at least partially back to his 2012 form. Even if he is not offensively, surely he will continue to play superior defense out in right field and not whiff sinking line drives. I'm looking at you, Chris Young.

David Laurila interviewed Derek Norris as part of his Q&A series with Fangraphs. Here's one nugget I hadn't known about until today:

DL: You had recently received instruction from Ivan Rodriguez. Who have you learned from since that time?

DN: I obviously don't have a guy like Pudge Rodiguez as a mentor here, but I'm taking what he taught me, and what some of the guys with Washington taught me, and combining it with the different views guys here have taught me. Bob Melvin was a catcher, as was Darren Bush, our bullpen coach. They've helped me out quite a bit. I've taken all of that and combined it into my own style of play.

What else do you have? Dump away!