Game Day Diary – Oakland @ Cleveland, 8/29/12

We’re live from the couch for tonight’s game against the Indians, the third in a four game series.  I wish we could play the Indians for another week.  It has been a few weeks since the last game day diary and the A’s have been on another roll, with great pitching and good hitting. 

A quick piece of news from this past weekend that is worth mentioning – The A’s won the season series over the TB Rays, providing Oakland with the tie-breaker if it is needed.  So that’s one tie-breaker in the books as we close in on meaningful September baseball! 

Tonight’s match-up has Travis Blackley against someone named Corey Kluber.  Again, can we play the Indians a few more times this year?  The effort they put on the field last night was close to embarrassing.  The A’s have outscored the Indians 42-0 over the first two games … OK; it is actually 10-0.  I think I’ve provided enough of a jinx for this game.  Play ball!

7:09pm US EST – First pitch is a strike to Coco Crisp, who is back in the lineup today.  Nice!  So much for that, not even a minute later and Coco is down on three pitches. 

7:10pm – Stephen Drew comes to the plate and this allows for a quick blurb on my opinion that it is great to have this guy at SS every night.  Upgrade!  As I finish that sentence, Drew lines out to his counterpart at SS. 

7:12pm – Cespedes pops out to end the 1^st inning and shattered a bat in the process.  This also reminds me to change the poll question on the page tonight.  Go vote for this season’s roster MVP through August.

7:17pm – Glen and Ray take us through Blackley’s stats and I had no idea that he’s been this good / efficient for the team this year.  Silent assassin? 

7:18pm – Cabrera gets tossed on a badly called strike three.  That was ball four.  I’ll take it. 

7:19pm – Choo swings at the first pitch and grounds out to end the 1^st.  Let’s make this another easy win, starting in the 2^nd. 

7:26pm – The heart of the A’s lineup goes down in about 5 minutes.  This isn’t exactly what I would call “following the script”. 

7:29pm – Santana breaks up Blackley’s bid for a no hitter with a ground ball that Drew is able to stop but has no throw or play at first base. 

7:38pm – Blackley has a long inning but absolutely no damage.  “Long” is relative to how the first inning and a half had gone. 

7:41pm – Josh Donaldson breaks up the no-no and picks up a hit up the middle for the A’s.  Donaldson has been playing pretty well given his increased opportunity over the past few weeks. 

7:44pm – Derek Norris either just missed that pitch or there is a swirling wind driving the ball back into play.  That sounded like a HR and wound up 15 feet in front of the warning track. 

7:48pm – Coco with a blooper into RF and that brings up 1^st and 3^rd with 2 outs (Pennington fouled out).  Let’s go Drew!

7:52pm – No avail as Drew grounds out to end the top of the 3^rd.  He isn’t taking my earlier compliments to heart apparently. 

7:54pm – Jason Donald homers and the Indians go up 1-0.  I’m getting a bit worried about the earlier jinx. 

7:55pm – That’s followed by a triple in the gap.  (Gulp)

7:58pm – Nice defensive play by Pennington to get the runner out at first, but the A’s give up another run and go down 2-0.  Yes, that was a compliment for Cliff.  They haven’t come often around here. 

8:03pm – Thankfully that inning is over with no more damage after another walk and a relatively deep fly ball to CF to end the inning. 

8:06pm – Cespedes gets his first hit with a ground ball up the middle.  Let’s go Oakland!!

8:08pm – For at least the second time this season, Glen and Ray rip out Cleveland’s sports fans’ hearts by discussing the on-going saga of failure for the city.  Let’s hope Indians fans have had the option of a home broadcast. 

8:11pm – Chris Carter comes through again with a double down the LF line and the A’s are in business with runners on 2^nd and 3^rd!

8:14pm – Reddick waves at an off-speed pitch and goes down on strikes. 

8:18pm – Josh Donaldson!!  Home … run!!!  3-2 Oakland

8:22pm – Cliff Pennington strikes out after Norris hit a follow-up double after Donaldson.  The A’s lead 3-2 as we head to the bottom of the fourth. 

8:28pm – Donaldson makes a nice defensive play on a slow dribbler down the line at 3B.  Josh is having a night! 

8:33pm – After Blackley leaves a welt on LaPorta’s body, Donaldson has another opportunity and fires the ball across the diamond to end the inning. 

8:37pm – Nice, a Ray Fosse montage!  At the same time, my vote for team MVP (Cespedes) hits another missile off the bottom of the wall. 

8:40pm – Seth Smith strikes out to end the top of the 5^th, with the A’s still leading 3-2.  Side note: I really wish more players would learn how to bunt against a defensive shift.  Please!

8:51pm – I completely dismissed the bottom of the 5^th and was watching the trailer to Sonicsgate the movie.  The Indians clearly did close to nothing as Reddick is already taking pitches in the top of the 6^th.  Reddick actually beats out a slow roller to lead off the 6^th. 

8:54pm – The Indians second basemen has Hannahan’s throw go right through him and the A’s have 1^st and 3^rd for the bottom of the lineup with only one out. 

8:56pm – The Indians look like they are filming another “Major League” movie with their play this inning as LaPorta tags first on a ground ball and forgets about Reddick at 3^rd base.  A’s take the lead 4-2. 

8:58pm – Cliff Pennington ends the A’s inning (again). 

 9:08pm – Pitching change for the A’s.  Blackley comes out after 5.2 innings, 2 BB’s, 5 SO’s, and 2 ER’s.  A nice outing from Travis, but he gives way to Neshek, who has a little Chad Bradford in him, with slightly less torque. 

9:11pm – Neshek gets the strikeout and the Indians go down in the bottom of the 6^th.  A’s still lead 4-2. 

9:14pm – Coco rips the first pitch of the inning to the wall and has a leadoff double. 

9:21pm – Cespedes strikes out after a pretty long battle on a 3-2 pitch that was likely outside and ball four.  It comes down to Smith to get Coco home here.

9:23pm – Smith comes through!  After striking out in his first three at bats, he rips the ball to left-center field and the A’s go up 5-2. 

9:24pm – Chris Carter with another hit.  He’s never seeing the minor leagues again.  A’s go up 6-2 and I think we can call this game right now.  The 27 fans left in their seats are likely heading to the exits. 

9:25pm – Reddick adds another hit with a single to RF, runners on 1^st and 2^nd with 2 outs. 

9:28pm – Donaldson strikes out to end the inning during Glen and Ray’s own random musings on the Indian Chief costume from the crowd and subsequent questioning for a “The Mauler” sighting.  If you haven’t seen “The Mauler” Athletics fan / jersey in Cleveland yet this week, he’s awesome.  (Unfortunately, I can’t find anything online to link to.  You’ll have to trust me.)

9:34pm – After 2.5 hours of silence, the Cleveland PA system lets out a handful of Ric Flair “Woooo”’s.  Those are always fun.  The two hits Neshek has given up here in the bottom of the 7^th are not.  Pitching change with the A’s going to Doolittle. 

9:42pm – Doolittle comes in and gets the job done again facing three batters and getting each of them. 

9:51pm – The A’s go down quickly and quietly in the 8^th and still lead 6-2.  Let’s get through this next inning and a half quickly please.  Deal?  Good. 

10:02pm – Bizarre inning so far with Doolittle giving up a few hits, Donaldson dropping a ball trying to put a tag on the runner (instead of going for the double play) and now the Indians put a run on the board to make it 6-3.  Melvin comes out to replace Doolittle with Blevins.  This is not the definition of “ending this game quickly”. 

10:06pm – Blevins quickly throws a wild pitch and the runners advance to 2^nd and 3^rd.  Uh-oh. 

10:08pm – Kotchman grounds out but the Indians score another run and the lead is down to 6-4.  Ryan Cook is on his way into the game. 

10:09pm – Cook gets the A’s out of the inning and we move to the 9^th inning, A’s lead 6-4.  Right before the last pitch, Glen gives us the update that the Orioles lost tonight.  If the A’s can hold on tonight, they’ll have sole possession of the first WC spot! 

10:18pm – Cespedes with another rip and it goes off the SS’s glove and into LF.  That scores Drew to make it a 7-4 game. 

10:22pm – Reddick with an RBI double to RF and the A’s go up 8-4. Nice response from the offense after the last half inning.  Let’s sit Balfour back down in the bullpen and save him for tomorrow. 

10:25pm – Donaldson strikes out to end the inning again, but I think he’s still getting my vote for player of the game. 

10:33pm – After giving up a lead-off double, Cook has struck out the last two batters and we are down to the final out of the game. 

10:35pm – Cliff Pennington throws out the runner at first and that ends tonight’s game!  The A’s are now in the lead for the Wild Card, have won 5 in a row, and are 15 games over .500!  Wow! 

The player of the game is … Josh Donaldson!  Let’s go Oakland!!