Game Day Diary - Oakland @ Minnesota, 7/15/12

In the interest of getting this blog up and running, and before I get through a summary of the A’s season through the All Star Game (+1 additional week I guess), I figured I would rip off of Bill Simmons’ NBA draft diaries.  1. I love the premise of those articles and found myself saying very similar things with my friends.  2. That’s about all I read of his these days but still enjoy them.  3. Copying is the greatest form of flattery, right?  Good. 

Feel free to comment and let me know if this type of entry is of interest moving forward.  I could try to do something similar on somewhat of a regular basis (whatever that is or becomes) without having the wife wanting to kill me. 

Running Diary, Oakland @ Minnesota, Sunday, 7/15/12:

2:10pm (US EST) - Live from my couch, I’m joined with our friends at Guinness, with a few leftovers in the fridge ready to be called in from the bullpen for lunch/dinner.  Here’s a rundown of today’s game from one fan’s perspective.

2:15 - Jemile Weeks takes away the no hit bid with a base hit to lead off the game.

2:18 – Jonny Gomes, for some reason batting second, slaps a ball to the outfield and we have 1^st and 3^rd for (the should have been All Star) Josh Reddick. 

2:24 – After Reddick strikes out, the always healthy Cespedes gets another base hit to the outfield.  Luckily, his hamstrings still look attached.  The A’s take the early lead.  1. This team is currently en fuego and pushing for a wildcard spot.  This is amazing and Melvin deserves some consideration for coach of the year if we even wind up over .500.  2. I love Cespedes, bear with my sarcasm or just don’t bother ever reading this blog again. 

2:26 – Chris Carter walks to load the bases.  I would not want to meet Carter in a dark alley. Separately, I really hope he’s in the big leagues for good now. 

2:29 – Brandon Inge strikes out for the 732^nd time this season.  The “Inge-A-Turtles” on Twitter (https://twitter.com/IngeAturtles) desperately need to change their name; for Brandon’s sake. 

2:32 – Derek Norris walks to ‘drive in’ a run and I’m already daydreaming about the Rangers and Yankees series coming up this week.  I’ve also realized there is no way I could do this for the entire game, seeing as the top of the 1^st is going to go a good 30 minutes. 

2:37 – 41 pitches in the top of the 1^st and we finally get to the end of the inning as Seth Smith grounds out with the bases loaded.  Hopefully, there are a few more opportunities to take advantage of in this game. 

2:38 – 1^st “refill”.  The best (or worst depending on your attention span) thing about MLB.TV on Xbox and Roku is the silence and blue screen during commercial breaks.  I personally love it.

2:39 – Jarrod Parker is on the mound today for the A’s.  I have no idea how Billy Beane and company continue to find these guys – consistent, young arms that could easily be a 3^rd, 4^th or 5^th starter on contenders. 

2:45 – Arch nemesis number 1 for the A’s this year, Josh Willingham, comes up to bat and hits a ball to Parker that could have been a double play.  E1, run scores, runners on 1^st and 2^nd now.  Lovely.  We’re not even through 1 inning yet and I’m already regretting typing my comments about the end of the top of the 1^st.  Good times. 

2:48 – No more damage, as Parker gets out of the inning. 

2:54 – Remember about 30 minutes ago when I questioned why Jonny Gomes was batting second in the lineup?  Let’s agree that Bob Melvin has forgotten more baseball than I’ll ever know or learn.  4-1 A’s with another shot off of Gomes’ bat (HR) with Weeks on board.  Well played. 

2:58 – CSN shows the graphic of the A’s being 1.5 games out of the wildcard.  I’ll use this time to also mention that I love Glen and Ray.  Aside from Vin Scully, I really can’t think of any other teams … wait, in game interruption, Cespedes goes yard and the A’s go up 5-1 … Back to Glen and Ray - there aren’t any other MLB booths that I enjoy more.  Honestly, this has nothing to do with being an Oakland fan, as I can’t stand my other favorite sports teams, home announcers (Seahawks radio team and Timberwolves TV).  They do a great job night in and night out, don’t oversell the good, and don’t harp on the bad, just an all around great team in the booth. 

3:00 – Chris Carter goes yard and the A’s are completely on fire!!  6-1. I’ve jumped on and off the bandwagon of this season too many times, so I’m just going to shut up.  Let’s go Oakland!!

3:05 – This game is on pace to last about 6 hours.  I’m sure the wife will be pleased.  Bottom of the second, Twins have runners on 2^nd and 3^rd with no outs.  This isn’t the way to protect the lead and build confidence with the lineup by the way. 

3:07 – Reddick did not look too smooth on that sacrifice fly, but they get the out.  Run scores 6-2.  I think it’s time for a refill.

3:14 – Ron Gardenhire woke up after the second inning and makes a call to the bullpen to someone named Casey Fien.  OK. 

3:20 – Fien gets through the top of the 3^rd without any problems.  Of course he does.  Anything I say, just expect the complete opposite to happen today … excluding Brandon Inge strikeouts. 

3:26 – Hicks with a nice double play to end the inning with no damage done.  A’s still up 6-2 going into the fourth.  I’m not a big fan of either SS on the A’s right now – which makes me one of about 99.9% of the fan base.  We really need to do something about this soon.

3:34 – Reddick gets his first hit of the game and stretches the inning a bit.  On the first pitch to Cespedes, he hits a bullet right to the SS and the inning ends.  Despite the out, the ball just jumps off of Cespedes’ bat even on ‘routine’ plays like this.  Please don’t trade Cespedes; in fact, I just hope no one is calling the FO at all on him to even put the train of thought in their minds. 

3:43 – Parker gives up a 2 out base hit but gets the next batter to end the inning.  Thankfully, we’re no longer on pace for a 6 hour game, as Parker looks solid.  That’s probably a kiss of death that I’ll be typing up in the next half hour or so. 

3:47 – Brandon Inge avoids striking out for the third time today by lining a shot … OK; actually he dribbled the ball about 25 feet and is thrown out at first by the pitcher.

3:49 – Derrick Norris strikes out to end the inning and this feels like a good time to bring up some thoughts on Zuke (Kurt Suzuki).  I really, really like Zuke and hope we keep him around.  He’s been a tremendous asset to the pitching staff but has a ton of mileage on his body.  I’d love to see him get home in late August / September and give this team a push into contending for a wildcard spot. 

3:56 – Parker gets through the bottom of the 5^th quickly - three up, three down.  CSN did a bit of a pan of the crowd at Target Field and I have to give kudos to the Twins faithful.  That’s a very nice sized crowd for a team that is playing pretty awful baseball. 

3:58 – Jeff Gray comes in to pitch for the Twins in the 6^th.  Again, who are these guys?  Seth Smith greets him with a leadoff home run, 7-2 A’s.  This HR was actually spoiled by Twitter and the 45 second delay received on MLB.TV.  The power and curse of the Internet strikes again.

4:06 – Jonny Gomes gets hit by a pitch and the A’s have runners on first and second again with Reddick coming up.  If he doesn’t get a hit here, you’re going to see a helmet toss. 

4:08 – No helmet toss, maybe due to the sacrifice fly, but CSN didn’t follow Reddick into the dugout either.  Consider this a petition for a future add-on to MLB.TV subscribers and multiple TV angles. 

4:10 – Cespedes with another hit and another RBI, 8-2 A’s.  Can we stay in Minnesota and play a game on Monday?  Jeff Gray exits the game and Twins fans are probably at the point of wondering when the Vikings season is set to start.  OK, maybe the Twolves (that’s my favorite NBA team).  OK, maybe not that either.  “Let’s go Wild” chants should start sprouting up any moment now at Target Field. 

4:18 – Jonny Gomes scores on a wild pitch, 9-2 A’s.  Brandon Inge with a sigh of relief, as he has the bases loaded and two outs. 

4:19 – Inge grounds out to end the inning.  It hasn’t been a good year for Brandon.  I’ll stop there. 

4:28 – The Twins are getting around on Parker and it might be time to get some arms up in the bullpen.  9-3 A’s, runners on second and third with one out. 

4:29 – Jerry Blevins is warming up in the bullpen.  While he’s having a pretty solid year, I’m still not a fan.

4:32 – Twins sacrifice another run in, 9-4 A’s.  However, Parker gets Casilla to tap out in front of the catcher to end the inning.  That was a pretty good outing from Parker, as he’s probably done for the day.  Without that early error, it would look a lot nicer. 

4:38 – That was a quick top of the 7^th, with the A’s going down in order.  Nothing to see there at all.

4:46 – Touché.  Blevins comes right back and puts the Twins down in order.  I always liked him …

4:53 – Jonny Gomes continues to make me look like a fool – another base hit for Gomes in the two hole of the lineup.  Player of the game; Check. Josh Reddick lines out quickly thereafter with a rocket to RF.  Fosse sums things up pretty nicely, “Feel bad for the opponents coming up this week” (or something similar to that). 

4:55 – Cespedes with yet another hit.  Have I mentioned how much I like this guy?  If he played in a big market, they would be talking about him every week and his batting average would probably be about 20 points higher (due to the Oakland Coliseum, O.com, whatever we’re calling it this month). 

5:01 – Inge grounds out to the pitcher (again) and leaves the bases loaded to end the top of the 8^th.  I don’t even want to bother making another joke here. 

5:07 – After 5 up and 5 down, Blevins is getting pulled by Melvin and Scribner is coming in.  To be honest, I’ve never seen him pitch on TV yet, but it is hard to make a joke about a guy that has a 0.00 ERA, even if it is only in 5 appearances. 

5:10 – Nice play from Inge to end the inning with a backhand on the line to throw out the hitter.  Scribner, minimal effort given, maybe he comes back out for the 9^th?

5:20 – After Brandon Hicks’ first hit of the game, Weeks grounds out to end the inning and mercifully sends us to the bottom of the 9^th.  The wife has joined the party and is looking for a quick end to the 9^th inning. 

5:27 – The Oakland A’s are now three games over .500 for the first time in the season, with a sweep of the Twins!  Hey now!  It is amazing what this team can do when they put some offense on the field!  As always …

Let’s go Oakland!!