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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Jack Cust hustled to first base with the bases loaded and two outs in the 11th inning and made it safely as the Oakland Athletics defeated the Detroit Tigers by the score of 5-4.  Cust barely made it and probably shouldn’t have if Tigers relief pitcher Feddy Dolsi would have got to the bag like he should.  A win is a win however, the A’s will gladly take it.

Eric Chavez hit his third home run of the season in the fifth inning to lead the A’s with three rbi in the game.  Travis Buck and Cust both had one rbi to help out as well.

On the mound, Chad Gaudin earned the victory after throwing the tenth and eleventh innings of the game.  Gaudin is now 5-3 as he has seen a lot of action out of the A’s bullpen this year.

Starting A’s pitcher Dana Eveland did not have his best stuff as he only lasted 4 1/3 innings.  Eveland didn’t have good control at all as he gave up three hits, three runs, and walked seven batters.  Eveland was very lucky to come away with a no decision in this game.

Alan Embree gave up one run in relief but four other Athletics pitchers threw scoreless innings to pick him up.  Brad Ziegler, Keith Foulke, Huston Street, and Gaudin all did a great job out of the bullpen for the A’s.

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The Oakland Athletics reassigned Jay Marshall, Arnold Leon, Ryan Wing and Brad Ziegler to minor league camp on Thursday.  The Athletics also optioned Landon Powell to Triple-A Sacramento.

This was just the first moves of many as the Atheltics start to cut players from the big league spring training camp.  They will have some harder decisions in the next few weeks, including the first basemen and dh positions.

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