What a wild day it was for the Oakland Athletics as they traded Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin to the Chicago Cubs and then went out and shut out the Seattle Mariners for a 2-0 victory.  First I will blog about the game where Justin Duchscherer threw a complete game two hitter and the A’s beat the Mariners 2-0.  Duchscherer was amazing all game long and improved to 10-5 on the season.

The A’s jumped on the scoreboard with single runs in the first and second innings and that was all the runs that they ended up needing.  Emil Brown had a rbi single in the first that scored Ryan Sweeney and then Donnie Murphy had a rbi sac fly that scored Kurt Suzuki in the second inning.  That was all the scoring the A’s could come up with but it was enough the way Duchscherer threw the ball.

Now onto the trade that happened.  Billy Beane sent Rich Harden and Chad Gaudin to the Chicago Cubs for Matt Murton, Eric Patterson, Sean Gallagher, and Josh Donaldson.  Gallagher is the prize of this trade in my opinion as he can be thrown right into the rotation and start pitching.  Murton is a decent corner outfield that just didn’t have a spot on the Cubs roster to get full playing time.  Patterson is an iffy player while Donaldson was the Cubs second round pick last year and plays at the catching position.

We will see how the A’s do without Harden, but so far so good.  Athletics Blog

Well that is a game that the A’s will need to quickly just forget about.  Wednesday night sure wasn’t the Athletics night as they were limited to only four hits and were shut out 4-0 by the visiting Philadelphia Phillies.  The first four batters of the lineup struggled as they went a combined 0-15 with one walk.

Greg Smith pitched 5 2/3 innings and gave up seven hits and four runs.  Smith dropped to 4-6 on the season.  Smith could have tossed a one hitter and gave up one run and he still wouldn’t have came away with a victory in this game though.  That is how bad the offense was.

Chad Gaudin, Santiago Casilla, and Andrew Brown all finished things up after Smith left the game.  All three relief pitchers did a good job and held the Phillies to four runs.

The A’s better gett he bats going on Thursday afternoon or they will find themselves losing two of three to the Phillies.

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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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Chad Gaudin allowed a two run home run to Evan Longoria in the top of the 13th inning as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Oakland Athletics 7-6 on Monday night.  The A’s tried to come back as they scored one run in the bottom of the inning, but Daric Barton was stranded at third base to end the game.

Gaudin took the disappointing lose for the A’s as he pitched two innings and gave up three hits and the two runs.  Gaudin is now 3-3 on the season.

Joe Blanton tosssed six innings of six hit and four run ball to start the game for the A’s.  He gave up one home run and struck out five batters as he got the no decision in the game.  Joey Devine relieved Blanton and pitched 2/3 of an inning while giving up one run.  Keith Foulke, Huston Steet, and Alan Embree all pitched until Gaudin came in to lose the game.

Frank Thomas led the A’s at the plate as he hit two home runs and finished the game with three rbi.  Emil Brown also added a solo home run for the Atletics.  Besides Brown, Ryan Sweeney and Barton both finished the game with one rbi.

Let’s see how the Athletics bounce back on Tuesday after playing 13 innings and losing the way they did to the Rays.  Athletics Blog

The Oakland Athletics lost another game to the Cleveland Indians as they lost 4-2 on Thursday.  With the loss, the A’s were swept in the three game series and their record dropped to 23-19 on the season.

Greg Smith lasted only 4 2/3 innings as he gave up seven hits and three runs to take the loss.  Smith had seven strikeouts in the game, but still got hit hard when he did get hit.  Smith is now Santiago Casilla also gave up one run out of the bullpen.

Joey Devine, Chad Gaudin, and Huston Street combined to pitched 3 1/3 innings without allowing a run so atleast they did a good job out of the bullpen.

The A’s only had one run until the ninth inning when they were able to make a little rally get started, but the last two runners were left on base after only one run was scored.  Both runs the A’s got in the game was unearned so no one recorded an rbi.  A wild pitch in the ninth inning and then a run came in the second inning when Bobby Crosby scored on an error when Rob Bowen hit a ball back to the Indinas pitcher and he didn’t make a good throw to first place.

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