7:02PM
(US EST) – We’re live with the Roku after making a quick pit stop at Happy
Hour. The wife was put on the 15 day DL
earlier this week with mono and that means we have a quick turnaround to the
second game day thread. The A’s begin a
weekend series in Baltimore and hopefully put the first nail in their coffin while
continuing their own ascent in the AL.
7:09 –
A’s lineup just presented and I have a love/hate relationship with Weeks at the
bottom of the lineup. This is working,
so I need to deal with it and be quiet.
7:11 –
Coco Crisp with a pretty terrible at bat to start off the game, which brings up
Jonny Gomes. Remember when I made fun of
him batting 2nd last time? I
don’t either.
7:14 –
After Gomes walks, we see one of the most bizarre triples I’ve seen in quite
some time, a high chopper into the right field corner from Reddick. That’s Reddick’s 50th RBI of the
season (according to Glen).
7:16 –
Wild pitch and Reddick scores, A’s go up 2-0.
I’m absurdly confident in the A’s going into this weekend. For the record; this isn’t a good sign.
7:18 –
Chris Carter sends a bomb to left field and the A’s go up 4-0. This write-up may not last the full 9
innings. Again, way too much confidence
for this weekend; if Inge gets a hit …
7:20 –
Never mind, Inge strikes out for the 747th time this season, despite
Glen and Ray’s pregame verbiage.
7:22 –
Norris grounds out to end the top of the 1st. Baltimore will send the SP out for the 2nd
to not waste the middle relievers arm for the rest of the A’s bottom of the
lineup.
7:23 –
I took a quick look at Twitter and see that Rosenthal is reporting that Greinke
is going to the Angels. Thanks KC! (Sarcasm)
7:25 –
Chris Carter with a nice defensive play to start the bottom of the 1st. I hope to repeat that sentence through
September and into October.
7:29 –
Parker with an easy bottom of the first.
7:32 –
The Mayans may have been right, Brandon Hicks sends one over the fence on the
first pitch of the inning. 5-0 A’s.
7:39 –
Reddick flies out to end the inning.
There are way too many fly ball outs for the A’s to not keep this going,
right?
7:43 –
Chris Davis destroys a pitch to right-center field and the lead is cut to
5-1.
7:45 –
There may or may not have been a double play there, but it was a beautiful play
from Inge. On a quick replay, it doesn’t
look close at first, with Carter coming off the bag. Thankfully, MLB is still in the 20th
century and doesn’t use replay for virtually anything. (When this happens against the A’s,
naturally, my opinion wildly shifts in the other direction.)
7:49 –
Cespedes flies out, but CSN shows a replay and convinces me that Carter stayed
on first for that double play. Either
way, Carter just grounded out for the second out of the inning.
7:59 –
A’s just miss throwing out the runner at home and the A’s are now up 5-2 with a
near home run bouncing off the top of the wall from Hardy. This inning started with two strikeouts and
is starting to fall apart a bit.
8:01 –
Parker gets out of it with some noise in the middle of the inning and it
remains 5-2 A’s.
8:07 –
The bottom of the A’s lineup goes down in order. I wasn’t holding my breath to bet against that.
8:17 –
After a wild pitch that moves a runner to third, Parker strikes out Reynolds to
end the inning. All three O’s down on
strikes in the inning. Parker continues
to impress me. (That’s ESPN-like
analysis there, I know)
8:24 –
Reddick just hit a ball that bounced off the very top of the wall and bounces
right into the center fielder’s glove and we have a double. However, Bob Melvin’s music is cued and he
comes out to ask for a review.
Naturally, I mention MLB’s review system earlier tonight and now this
happens. You really can’t make this
stuff up. Have I mentioned that I love
MLB’s instant replay?
8:29 –
I listened to Glen and Ray explain Reddick’s double and came away just as
confused. What just happened? Either way, Reddick remains on second for
Cespedes. By the way, that’s
approximately 5 minutes for the final call on replay. MLB might want to expedite that a bit.
8:35 –
Carter grounds out to end the inning and the A’s still have the lead 5-2. If it were not for Reddick’s HR / not HR,
this game was coming to a screeching halt in excitement. Actually, it still is.
8:37 –
MLB.TV comes back a few seconds early and I get to see that there is a Scott
Hatterberg bobblehead day coming up.
Nice!
8:41 –
Orioles causing some havoc with another run in and runners on 1st
and 2nd. I’d love to blame
Inge’s height on that hit, but I’m fair and balanced. (Sarcasm?)
8:45 –
Jim Thome strikes out on his 63rd birthday. OK, I made that up. (The birthday part)
8:46 –
Sarcasm bites me right in the face like a zombie, as Adam Jones hits a HR and
the Orioles take the lead, 6-5. I just jumped
off the confidence pedestal.
8:47 –
Parker’s 8th strikeout comes a few batters too late and we go to the
6th inning with the A’s now down 6-5. Uh-oh.
8:56 –
After two quick outs, Brandon Hicks walks for the first time this season (not
really) and Buck Schowalter couldn’t run out to the mound to pull his starting
pitcher faster.
9:05 –
We now have three two out walks and Seth Smith comes in to hit for Gomes. Let’s get this right back.
9:08 –
After taking five straight pitches, Seth Smith strokes a ball to left-center
field and clears the bases. Hey now,
8-6, A’s back on top! As an added bonus,
CSN shows Gomes rooting for Smith. I
love the chemistry on this team right now!
9:11 –
Reddick pops out to end the inning but it looked like he didn’t miss that by much. That last sentence is exactly why I didn’t
want to write a midseason review during/after this streak. If that happened a month ago, I would have
been all over Reddick. Moving on…
9:19 –
Noberto gets through the bottom of the 6th relatively easily. As an aside, I would like Noberto to shave
his beard. We don’t want or need the
coverage that James Harden got for the OKC Thunder (not that we would, but
still). Thanks in advance.
9:27 –
Brandon Inge slows down the inning with an infield hit. CSN shows the standings for the wild card and
I feel reinvigorated.
9:29 –
Derek Norris doesn’t feel the same and strikes out looking to end the top half
of the 7th.
9:33 –
Grant Balfour comes in to pitch for the A’s.
He was my favorite player on the team last year. This year, I still love him, but a little
more consistency is desired.
9:50 –
Seventeen minutes of silence means complete frustration on my part. Balfour walks the bases loaded and has two
outs. Sean Doolittle is coming in to
clean up this mess.
9:54 –
Doolittle strikes out Betemit to end the inning on three pitches. Kudos to Doolittle there, and yes, I just
enjoy typing his name. (Phew)
9:57 –
Hicks has another hit to lead off the inning.
He must have heard a few trade rumors.
10:00
– Someone close to a camera is cheering “You ain’t Rickie” while Jemile Weeks
is batting. Is that a good thing or a
bad thing? Baltimore fans don’t have
much to hang on to since Ripken retired, so I’ll let it go. (For those that don’t know, Rickie Weeks is
Jemile’s older brother)
10:07
– Glen announces that the Blue Jays beat the Tigers and Josh Reddick takes
strike three with runners in scoring position.
That was the bittersweet moment of the evening. A’s lead 8-6 still
10:16
– Melvin comes to the mound to call in Ryan Cook (All Star) to close out the 8th,
after Doolittle gets into a little bit of trouble. 2 outs, 2 on for Cook post the blue screen
for MLB.TV. (I’m very glad they don’t,
but wouldn’t you sell ad space here if you were MLB.TV? You know what, never mind, I didn’t say
anything.)
10:20
– Cook gives up a hit to Hardy and the A’s are now up by one run, 8-7. Not good times.
10:22
– Fosse makes fun of Norris for not dropping his mask on a pitch in the dirt
for the 10th time this week.
Glen enjoys the joke, I do too.
This is going to cost the A’s something, somewhere. You can feel it. As I typed that, Thome comes through and just
tied the game vs. a shift. If you aren’t
going to pitch inside, don’t put your fielders in a shift. The VP of common sense is checking in for
duty too late.
10:29
– Cook hits Jones and this game has turned into a potential disaster. Bases loaded for the O’s.
10:30
– Orioles take the lead on a hit to left field, but the A’s get “a break” with
Thome trying to score from second, as he’s thrown out by about 85 feet. Again, not good times. It’s on to the 9th with Cespedes
leading off, and the A’s down 9-8.
10:35
– Cespedes hits a cue shot that gets scooped up by the first baseman. One out and it comes down to Carter … because
Inge is up next. (Reverse jinx effort)
10:36
– Carter singles up the middle to bring up Inge. (Gulp)
10:38
– Inge singles to left and here we go!
Sadly, we have run into the bottom of the A’s lineup. (Reverse jinx squared)
10:41
– The second ridiculous chopper goes over the first baseman’s head and this
game is tied! This game is not good for
the heart. Brandon Moss is hitting for
Hicks = Upgrade
10:44
– Moss walks to load the bases and Weeks comes up. “You’re not Rickie!!!” Chant it, I dare you.
10:46
– Yes! Jemile Weeks, not Rickie, comes
through with a single to left field.
10:47
– Coco Crisp comes through again and the A’s go up 12-9. Who are these guys?!
10:52
– Seth Smith crushes a ball off the right field wall and we now have a 14-9
lead. I’m relatively positive that this
is the craziest game of the A’s season, and that is saying A LOT.
10:54
– Reddick “just misses” another one and I think we are looking at a slump
forthcoming, with the team masking it (hopefully). End of the inning as that was typed and we go
to the bottom of the 9th.
10:58
– Jerry Blevins is pitching the 9th and that makes me
uncomfortable.
10:59
– Blevins gets a strike three called and I think the umpire is looking forward
to the fireworks in Baltimore this evening. 1 out.
11:00
– Brandon Inge chokes on a ground ball hit right at him and we have a man on
first. For some (home town scoring)
reason, that is called a hit. It wasn’t.
11:02
– Jerry Blevins now has men on 1st and 2nd. Have I mentioned that I can’t stand
Blevins? Where is Ricardo Rincon?
11:09
– Reddick catches the ball against the wall and is still down 30 seconds
later. Maybe he wants a good seat for
the fireworks? Let’s hope so. This isn’t the best way to end another nice
win by the A’s.
As
always… Let’s go Oakland!!
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