The Oakland Athletics had 16 hits and scored six runs in the first two innings of the game and then held on to beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-5 on Wednesday evening. With the one run victory, the A’s and Angels split the four game series.

Six differen’t A’s pitchers pitched in the game as Gio Gonzalez only lasted three inning. Gonzalez gave up three hits and four runs and then the bullpen was called into action. Huston Street ended up picking up the win as he pitched 1 2/3 innings of relief. Brad Ziegler recorded his sixth save of the season as well in the game as he shut the door on the Angels in the ninth inning.

Emil Brown led the way at the plate with three rbi. Brown had a rbi single in the first inning and then a two run home run in the second inning. Bobby Crosby was right behind Brown in the rbi column as he had a two run double for two rbi’s. Eric Patterson added a rbi single to finish up the scoring for the A’s.

The A’s will now begin a four game series with the Minnesota Twins on Thursday night. A’s Blog

The Oakland Athletics and Los Angeles Angels played a very close ballgame on Monday night and it was the A’s coming out on top with a 2-1 victory. Dallas Braden and Jered Weaver both tossed seven innings but it was Braden who only allowed one run and received the win while Weaver and the Angels took the loss.

Braden was awesome in his seven innings of action. He allowed seven hits but only one run and improved his record to 4-3. The one run that scored was on a solo home run by Mike Napoli in the sixth inning. Joey Devine tossed a scoreless eighth inning before turning things over to Brad Ziegler who recorded his fifth save by pitching a scoreless ninth inning. Awesome job by Braden and the A’s bullpen!

At the plate, Daric Barton got the A’s on the scoreboard with a solo home run off of Weaver in the third inning. In the fourth inning, the A’s would score their second run on a wild pitch by Weaver. Frank Thomas would be the base runner to score on the wild pitch.

There wasn’t much offense for either team as the pitchers really took over the game. It was a great win for the A’s and it shows they can play with any team in the league if they cut down on all the mental errors and just get out there and play baseball.

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The Oakland Athletics bats faltered on Wednesday afternoon as they lost to the Minnesota Twins by the score of 3-1. The A’s pushed across one run in the first inning but then were held scoreless the final eight innings of the game. The A’s ended up losing the three game series one game to two and are now 57-69 on the season.

Dallas Braden took the loss after being charged with six hits and three runs over 5 2/3 innings. Braden gave up single runs in the first, third, and sixth innings. Huston Street and Alan Embree both seen action out of the bullpen and held the Twins to the three runs that Braden had given up.

The one run for the A’s that came in the first inning happened when Jack Cust reached on an infield single and Mark Ellis scored. That was all the offense for the A’s as they were limited to just five hits in the game.

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The Oakland A’s jumped out to a 1-0 lead after the first inning and then held onto beat the Minnesota Twins 3-2 as the two teams opened up a three game series in Minnesota. The A’s got a big boost from Kirk Saarloos who was called up from Triple-A and pitched out of the bullpen.

Saarloos came into the game after Justin Duchscherer left the game in the third inning with hip pain. Saarloos would go onto throw 3 2/3 innings while onling giving up one hit. He pitched very good and picked up the win which was his first at the major league level this year.

The Twins tried to make things interesting late in the game as they scored one run off of Huston Street and then another one off of Brad Ziegler. Ziegler was able to calm down however and pick up his third save of the season.

Mark Ellis got the A’s on the scoreboard in the first inning with a solo home run. The A’s would then score two more runs in the fourth inning on a Kurt Suzuki single that scored Frank Thomas and Jack Cust. There wasn’t much offense but it was enough to get the victory over the Twins.

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The Oakland Athletics and Tampa Bay Rays played 12 innings of baseball on Thursday and the A’s were on the wrong end of the scoring as they lost 7-6 in. With the one run loss, the A’s lost two out of three games against the East Division leading Rays. All three games in the series were one run games so it was a pretty competitive series.

A’s starting pitcher Sean Gallagher lasted only four innings as he was taken out after giving up four hits and three runs. Gallagher had problems with control as he walked four batters and struck four others out. Dan Meyer and Brad Ziegler both allowed earned runs in the game out of the bullpen. It was the first earned run allowed by Zigler as he had tossed 39 scoreless innings. Santiago Casilla who took the loss was charged with two runs in the twelfth inning. Casilla gave up a solo home run to Tony Pena and then rbi single to Dioner Navarro.

Daric Barton and Carlos Gonzalez both had two rbi while Frank Thomas chipped in with one rbi himself. Thomas was the one that tied the game in the ninth inning with a rbi single to deep right field. The A’s offense left 26 runners on base while taking eight walks and striking out ten times.

The A’s will now welcome in the Chicago White Sox for a three game series this weekend.

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