On Monday night the Oakland Athletics and Texas Rangers played 11 innings with the A’s coming out on top with a 4-3 victory. The A’s had blown the save in the bottom of the ninth inning, so it was nice to see them battle back and still get the victory.

Brad Ziegler blew the save when he gave up a solo home run to Hank Blalock in the bottom of the ninth inning. Alan Embree ended up being the winning pitcher in the game after throwing the tenth inning. Santiago Casilla got his second save of the year when he finished off the Rangers in the eleventh inning. Greg Smith had started the game for the A’s but only lasted five innings as he gave up six hits and two runs.

At the plate for the A’s, Travis Buck had the game winning hit when he singled and Cliff Pennington scored. Pennington also had a rbi single of his own while Jack Cust had a rbi double. There wasn’t much offense for the A’s but on Monday night it was enough to get the victory.

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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

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 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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The Oakland Athletics picked up a nice 8-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night to even their series at one game each.  The A’s used a a three run 4th inning and a four run 8th inning to score all seven of their runs.  It was nice to see the team score seven runs on nine hits as that means the offense was productive and knocked in the runs when they needed too.

Jack Hannahan clubbed a three run home run in the 4th inning and then added a rbi single in the 8th inning to lead the team with four rbi.  Kurt Suzuki and Bobby Crosby both added on a rbi each in the game as well.  Ryan Sweeney also scored on a error in the ninth inning for the A’s eight and final run of the game.

Dallas Braden picked up the win after throwing five innings.  Jerry Blevins tossed a scorless inning before Brad Ziegler threw the 7th and 8th innings without allow a run.  Closer Huston Street tossed the final inning of the game.

Awesome win for the A’s who even up the series at one game each.  Hopefully they can win again on Wednesday.  What do you think of their chances?

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The Oakland Athletics were ahead 3-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning but they allowed the Angels to score three runs in the bottom of the inning and pull away for the 5-3 victory.  Alan Embree was charged with all three runs in the eighth inning for the A’s and took the loss and is now 1-3 on the season.  Embree gave up a rbi single to Vladimir Guerrero and then a two run home run to Garret Anderson.

A’s starting pitcher Rich Harden only pitched five innings as he was pulled after giving up five hits and two runs.  Brad Ziegler did a good job as he pitched two innings of scoreless relief after Harden left the game.

The A’s had three seperate plates with one rbi each in the game.  Mark Ellis hit a solo home run in the eighth inning while Bobby Crosby and Ryan Sweeney both had rbi singles early in the game.  A’s just needed a little bit more offense to pull out the victory.

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The Oakland A’s and Arizona Diamondbacks played a very good baseball games on Tuesay but the A’s fell short as they lost 2-1.  The A’s got good starting pitching but the bullpen couldn’t hold the D-backs down late in the game as they scored the winning run on a home run in the eighth inning.  The Diamondbacks took two out of three agains the A’s in the series.

The A’s sent Greg Smith to the mound to start the game and he threw the first five innings of the game giving up three hits and one run.  Smith did walk three batters while striking out five.  I’m not really sure why he was pulled after five innings but the first two guys out of the bullpen did a good job when they came in.

Brad Ziegler and Alan Embree combined to throw the sixth and seventh innings without letting a run score.  But in the eighth inning, Keith Foulke gave up a home run to Justin Upton that proved to be the game winning hit.  Foulke took the loss the Athletics and is now 0-2 on the season.

Jack Cust had the only rbi for the Athletics when he singled in Mark Ellis in the sixth inning.  The A’s only had two other hits in the game as they really couldn’t get anything going at the plate against the Diamondbacks.

Hopefully the A’s will swing a better bat this weekend when they take on the Florida Marlins.

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Joe Blanton sure wants to forget his start Wednesday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Blanton only pitched three innings as he gave up seven hits and three runs while taking the loss and falling to 3-10 on the season. 

Brad Ziegler pitched a scoreless fourth inning after Blanton was taken out of the game but in the fifth inning the D-backs tacked on three more runs off of Chad Gaudin.  Finally the D-backs were done scoring as Kiko Calero pitched the seventh and eighth innings without allowing another run.

Kurt Suzuki had a rbi single in the seventh inning for the only rbi for the A’s.  The Athletics struckout 11 times in the game as they looked clueless at the plate against the three Diamondbacks pitchers they faced.

The rubber match of the three game series will be plated on Thursday afternoon so the Athletics still have a shot at winning the series if they can some how start swinging the bats better.

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