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As good as the A's have been this season, they've seemed very capable of putting up the not-so-infrequent dud, such as last Thursday's 8-3 drubbing courtesy of the Angels. A similar fate befell them tonight, as the Blue Jays dominated Oakland, hitting two home runs and using three pitchers to shut out the A's and claim a 5-0 victory.
Mark Buehrle was dominant tonight, allowing just five hits in seven full innings of work. There's not much else to say, other than that the A's lineup vs. left-handed pitchers (i.e., stacked with righty batters) is certainly lacking lately.
But with just hours to go before the non-waiver trade deadline, Oakland's front office did its best to give that lineup a boost. The A's made a move for a right-handed hitting infielder in Alberto Callaspo tonight, giving up former 1st-round draft pick Grant Green. Check out the AN thread about the trade here.
Dan Straily was bad tonight, but not inexcusably so, given that this Toronto team is known for its home run-hitting abilities. Indeed, two Blue Jays, Jose Bautista and Emilio Bonifacio, took him deep tonight. In total, he gave up six hits over 4.2 innings pitched, but just two of the five total runs he gave up were earned.
Steve Delabar and Darren Oliver closed the game out for Toronto, while Dan Otero, Jerry Blevins, and Pat Neshek combined to throw 4.1 scoreless innings in relief of Straily.
Poster bta47 pointed out something pretty cool that happened in the 8th inning — Delabar threw just the 51st immaculate inning (nine pitches, nine strikes, and three outs) in the history of Major League baseball, striking out the side in the process. Adam Rosales, Coco Crisp, and Chris Young all fell victim to three-pitch strikeouts, and even though few in the crowd of 17,479 realized it, they all witnessed history.
As I write this recap, the Rangers-Angels game is in the 10th inning. Bear in mind that the A's game just ended after 9 innings, and the Texas-LAA game started a full two hours before the one in Oakland. When I last checked, the score was 11-11. (Update: Rangers win, and the A's lead in the division sits at 5 games).
Josh Reddick appears to be relatively okay after getting accidentally kneed in the head by Jed Lowrie in the 7th inning as both attempted to chase down an Emilio Bonifacio pop up that fell only feet fair into shallow right field. After getting checked on, he stayed in the game, but the collision left its mark:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23Athletics&src=hash">#Athletics</a>' Josh Reddick had a "really bad headache and bruising in the back of the head" after he was accidentally kneed by Jed Lowrie.</p>— Steve Kroner (@SteveKronerSF) <a href="https://twitter.com/SteveKronerSF/statuses/362449836408188928">July 31, 2013</a></blockquote>
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The A's and Jays will go at it one more time tomorrow afternoon, with first pitch at the Coliseum scheduled for 12:35pm. Cuppingmaster will have your thread.
