Offense check, Pitching check.

That’s what we all expected coming into this season, three-run homers, and good pitching. The A’s took the first game of the series versus the Baltimore Orioles 9-1, backed by a solid pitching performance by Dallas Braden.

Braden was the lucky recipient of a bunch of runs, all nine in the first five innings and Braden didn’t look back. Braden evened his record on the year (5-5) and struck out a career high seven in seven innings of work. He gave up one run on just five hits, a solo shot to right off the bat of Baltimore outfielder Luke Scott, who is extremely hot right now. Has anyone noticed Braden’s tattooed-right index finger? Rollie Fingers esk. and he uses it extremely well I might add.

Braden was a little unhappy when Bob Geren removed him after the seventh inning with only 102 pitches. Braden began showing up Geren by doing pull-ups in the dug-out. Gotta love it!

The offensive onslaught began with six first-inning runs. Jack Cust hit a three-run home run to center (must of been the new haircut), Aaron Cunningham drove in two with a single up the middle, scoring Suzuki and Giambi. The final run of the inning came from the least likely Athletic, Rajai Davis, his first of the season on a line-drive-single to right. The final blow came in the fifth, a enormous three-run home run to center. To trade or not to trade, that is the question.

Geren must be loving these wins, heck, he probably thinks he has a lot to do with it. Four straight is nice, but Geren, it wasn’t you man, in fact your still very much on the hot-seat.

Go Green and Gold!

Let’s forget about today’s home opener shall we.

The A’s leaving nine on base leaves an acrid 2008-like taste in my mouth, anyone else? Chavez wasn’t even in the lineup (add two to three more). At least we saw Matt Holiday and promising prospect Aaron Cunningham drive in runs and the important pitchers mostly doing their jobs.

The A’s took the loss Friday eight to five to the Brewers in their spring home opener.

The goods: Dana Eveland going two innings without surrendering a hit.

The surprise: Jerome Williams going two giving up only one hit.

And the bad: A’s hitters with men on base (obviously).

If a trend is emerging early out of camp, it’s the Oakland starters. They’re doing an impressive job early on, while the relievers in many cases are not. Obviously most relievers showcased so far are long shots to make the club so fear not worry warts, it’s just spring training. After all If we look at last years spring training record, and how the A’s finished in the 2008 regular season, we might want to see them lose more often. Well at least until I get down there.

All sarcasm put to the side, Chavez’ health will probably determine the fate of the offense. If Chavez proves healthy, we could conceivably looking at four 25 plus homer seasons in the starting lineup. Holliday, Giambi, Cust, Chavez, and Crosby could make it five, but don’t take my word on the last guy.

The lineup to my likes ( baring any trades):

1.Ryan Sweeney

2.Mark Ellis (if healthy)

3.Jack Cust

4.Matt Holliday

5.Jason Giambi (AKA “the bouncer)

6.Erik Chavez (if healthy)

7.Bobby Crosby

8.Travis Buck

9.Kurt Suzuki
Now it’s possible the A’s acquire Orlando Cabrera and Aaron Cunningham wins the starting spot over Buck so keep that in consideration. This lineup if healthy will score runs no doubht, but is it better than the Angels? I say yes. tell me what you think.

As both bay area teams took the loss to their division rivals Thursday, the A’s to the Halos, Giants to the Dodgers, rest assure it’s not the end of the world, even Tiger can’t win ‘em all.

On another note.

I cant seem to wonder why the A’s are giving Ben Copeland (acquired in 2008 Rule 5 Draft) any at bats. We already have Rajai Davis! To have more than one recycled Giant outfielder (not hating Giants fans) is borderline insanity, especially when they have Aaron Cunningham waiting in the wings. I know it might seem biased to base my reasoning on the fact that he was once a Giant, but common. The last known successful ex-Giant was who…thinking…and some more…Jeff Kent and his ex team mate Pedro Feliz. honesty that’s about it in the last 10 to 15 years.

Back to today’s game

Jack Cust got back to doing what he does best, hit home runs, meanwhile Sean Gallagher had a promising outing. He started the game and went two innings, giving up 3 hits, a walk, and two strikeouts. I must say, if this guy can perform like many baseball experts have predicted, it would provide a much needed boost for the young and unproven rotation.

The question of the day. What will Gallagher’s numbers be like come the all-star break? I think he is the biggest question mark of the rotation and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some correlation between the A’s success and Gallagher’s.

The Oakland Athletics rallied in the bottom of the ninth inning but came up just short against the Los Angeles Angels. The A’s scored four times in the ninth inning to avoid the shut out as they ended up losing by the score of 6-4. The A’s came up just short of sweeping the league leading Angels in the series as they had won the first two games of the series.

Jack Cust, Aaron Cunningham, Kurt Suzuki, and Carlos Gonzalez all had one rbi each for the A’s at the plate. It’s too bad that it took the A’s until the ninth inning to get the offense kicking and score some runs.

The starting pitcher for the A’s was Josh Outman who took the loss. Outman gave up six hits and three runs in the game in 4 1/3 innings of action. Keith Foulke was terrible as he gave up three solo home runs in a row. Kendry Morales, Mike Napoli, and Brandon Wood went back-to-back-to-back off of Foulke in the seventh inning.

The A’s will now have a weekend series against the Seattle Mariners who are really struggling at this point in the season. A’s blog

The Oakland Athletics finished up a three game series with the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday afternoon with a 5-2 victory. The A’s took two out of three games in the series and they improved their season record to 67-78.

There wasn’t a ton of offense for the A’s but they did push across two runs in the first inning to jump out to a 2-0 lead and then added three more in the fourth inning. In the first, Ryan Sweeney and Jack Cust both hit solo home runs off of Armando Galarraga. In the fourth inning, Eric Patterson started the scoring off with a rbi single and then Aaron Cunningham knocked in two runs with a two run single.

Sean Gallagher got the start on the mound but only lasted four innings as he had control issues. Gallagher gave up six walks while striking out six others. He did not allow a run but didn’t pitch five innings to qualify for the win. Huston Street was the winning pitcher for the A’s and is now 6-5. Brad Ziegler pitched the ninth inning and now has eight saves for the year.

The A’s will kick off a four game series with the Texas Rangers on Thursday. Check back for our update about that game late Thursday night or Friday morning! A’s Blog

Aaron Cunningham who was trying to earn a spot on the big league roster with the Oakland Athletics will start the season in the disabled list as he broke his left wrist while sliding into a base.  Another reason why head first slides 90% suck…

It was going to be hard for Cunningham to make the big league roster this year and he will more then likely come of the disabled list and start playing in double a ball.

In some other Athletic news from Spring Training, it doesn’t look like Eric Chavez will be making his 10th straight opening day start for the Athletics.  Chavez still isn’t running and isn’t responding too well after receiving an epidural last week.