Game Thread #130: Athletics at Cardinals

Maybe it is just me, but have you ever noticed that when you feel at your lowest, your most hopeless, and you're not sure you can watch another game in person or on TV so you rely just on the radio...And Ray Fosse annoys you because there is NOTHING to talk about...in those moments doesn't it always seem like ownership starts their smoke-and-mirrors of discussing a new stadium? Their touring a piece of land...or "in talks" with blah-de-blah...or "if only so and so would be open we could have a stadium." Seriously. It's becoming a pattern. I really believe it is. And when they really want to distract you from your pain, it's not just Lew Wolff. There's some quote from some other owner who comes out from behind the green veil of the Great-and-Powerful Oz projection screen and tries to appear human.

I've never recorded dates and details in my notebook, but it ALWAYS happens. It reminds me of a t-shirt that I saw in Solvang when I was a kid: Two vultures on a tree (that's us) and one vulture says to the other, "Patience my ass! I'm gonna kill something." It's like when we are on that tree limb and ready to kill something, that's when they try to distract us with stadium chatter. Hey, here's a thought, ownership and management: How about making the game exciting by playing some of the new prospects, sitting the ones that make our skin crawl (cough, Butler...for some of you, cough, but not me: Coco).

OK, thanks for joining me in the above therapeutic rant. Breathe. Here we go. Here's today's game preview, what little there is to say:

1. Andrew Triggs (4.38ERA), who threw six scoreless innings on Monday against the Indians, will take the hill against Jaime Garcia (4.37ERA).

2. Yonder Alonso has a .400 BA against Garcia. Garcia is tougher to hit beat at home. Of his 62 career wins, 34 have been at home.

3. No Cardinal has ever batted against Triggs. After the previous case of this, the Cardinals were interviewed and even Brandon Moss gave the "oh we've never seen them before so it's hard to know how to hit off him" speech. Yeah, see the ball..Hit the ball. (Insert Bull Durham coach's voiceover.)

4. If it gets bad during the game, take a moment to get your tickets for Monday, September 5th. It's important to walk away from a game and feel like you scored SOMEthing!

Here's today's starters: