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 lost to the Kansas City Royals 4-3 on 11 innings on Wednesday afternoon.  The loss finished up a very dissappointing series with the Royals as the A’s lost all three games and are now 53-54 on the season.  Losing Blanton and Harden is really going to show in the next three weeks I’m afraid.

Huston Street took the loss for the A’s as he gave up a rbi sac fly to Jose Guillen in the 11th inning.  Street pitched 1 2/3 innings and was possibly left in the game just a little bit too long in my opinion.  Starting pitcher Sean Gallagher was charged with five hits and three runs over five innings.

The A’s first got on the scoreboard in the second inning when Bobby Crosby had a rbi single to score Mark Ellis.  Ryan Sweeney then added a rbi single that scored Jack Hannahan to make it 2-0 A’s.  The Athletics would not score again until the seventh inning when Crosby had another rbi single that scored Emil Brown.

Tough series for the A’s and I don’t see things turning around to be honest.  I should also mention that I will not be around until August 12th as I will be at a conference out of town.  If there is an A’s fan out there that would like to cover the games and do some blogging please use the contact us link and email me for details.

Thanks – Cliff

The Oakland Athletics couldn’t come back all the way to beat the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday afternoon.  Starting pitcher Greg Smith gave up back to back homers in the fifth inning as he took the loss for the A’s.  I was really hoping the A’s would be able to win on Wednesday as they would have won the three game series on the road.  However that was not the case as the A’s lost 4-3.

Santiago Casilla gave up one hit while only recording one out and was taken out of the game in the 7th inning.  Alan Embree recorded the final two outs of the 7th inning and then Jerry Blevins tossed a scoreless 8th inning.

The A’s had some trouble with James Shields who got the start for the Rays.  Shields tossed 8 1/3 innings and limited the A’s to three runs.  Emil Brown and Carlos Gonzalez both hit solo home runs off of Shields and that was all they had until the 9th inning.  The A’s then scored a run in the 9th inning when Ben Zobrist singled off Troy Percival.  However, Bobby Crosby grounded out with the tying run on first to end the game.

The A’s will now be off on Thursday and then start up a weekend series against the Texas Rangers. A’s Baseball Blog

The Oakland A’s were on the verge of losing to the Seattle Mariners until the bottom of the ninth inning when they hit two solo home runs to take the game into extra innings.  In the 11th inning, another solo home run won it for the A’s as the they defeated the Mariners 3-2.

Jack Cust and Kurt Suzuki both went deep in the 9th inning that tied the game up at 2-2.  Emil Brown hit his 7th home run of the year in the 11th inning to win it for the Athletics in walk off fashion.  It was a huge come from behind win the the A’s who are now 50-42.

Huston Street recorded the win and is now 2-2 on the year.  Street was the sixth A’s pitcher to see action in the game.  Starting pitcher Greg Smith didn’t allow a run over six innings but did give up four hits.  Santiago Casilla and Alan Embree were the two pitchers that gave up one run each.

The A’s will now start a three game weekend series with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Friday.  The series is very big because the Athletics are 4.5 games behind the Angels in the divisional standings.

Athletics Blog

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

The Oakland Athletics got home runs from Emil Brown and Jack Cust as they defeated the Philadelphia Phillies by the score of 5-2.  The Athletics struggled at the plate until the seventh inning when Brown was able to hit a three run blase off of Phillies starting pitcher Jamie Moyer.  Moyer then excited the game and Cust went deep for a two run shot in the eighth inning off of Phillies reliever J.C. Romero.  Those two swings of the bat were good enough to get the victory for the A’s.

I would still like the A’s to put together some innings where they have three or four hits a in a row and manufacture some runs.  You can’t always depend on the long ball like they had to on Tuesday night against the Phillies.  And only getting six hits in the game, that isn’t very good at all.

Joe Blanton finally had a good outing as he improved his record to 4-10 on the season.  Blanton tossed seven innings and only gave up four hits and one run while striking out five batters.  Alan Embree gave up a rbi single to Ryan Howard in the eighth inning but then Huston Street was able to shut the door on the Phillies in the ninth inning and record his 14th save of the season.

The A’s will Greg Smith to the mound on Wednesday as they look to go up 2-0 in the series.

Athletics Blog

Lol, all I can really do is laught at how poorly the Oakland Athletics played today against the Toronto Blue Jays.  The Blue Jays jacked up the A’s as they beat them 12-0 and had zero problems all game long.

It was like the A’s didn’t even show up to play on either side of the ball.  Three different A’s pitchers gave up runs in the game as Dana Eveland gave up seven runs, Dallas Braden gave up three runs, and Lenny DiNardo gave up two runs.  Terrible job by all three pitchers.

The hitting wasn’t any better however as the A’s left 16 runners on base and did not score one run.  Jack Hannahan collected three hits while Emil Brown had two hits, but that was about it for the A’s at the plate.

Now the Athletics travel to Texas to take on the Rangers in a three game series over the weekend.

Athletics Blog

Dana Eveland pitched a complete game three hitter on Wednesday as the Oakland Athletics defeated the Tampa Bay Rays by the score of 9-1.  Eveland was on top of his game all except for one pitch in the eighth inning when Jonny Gomes took him deep for a solo home run.  Eveland is now 4-3 on the season.

Jack Cust led the A’s at the plate with two home runs and four rbi in the game.  Jack Hannahan also had a solo home run in the game to finish with one rbi.  Bobby Crosby collected two rbi in the game with two run double.  Emil Brown and Kurt Suzuki both finished the game with one rbi as well.

Good win the the A’s  as they will have Thursday off as they head up to Boston to take the Red Sox on in a three game weekend series.

Athletics Blog

Emil Brown attempted to make a sliding catch with the bases loaded in the eighth inning but he came up short and the ball got behind him in the outfield and the Tampa Bay Rays scored three runs as they went onto beat the Athletics 3-2.

Definaly not the way you want to lose a game.  Hopefully Brown will bounce back and have a good couple of games here soon.  All he can do is forget about it and go out there and play baseball.

Frank Thomas tried to rally the A’s back with a solo home run in the ninth inning but the A’s couldn’t push across another run to atleast tie the game.  Rajai Davis had the others A’s rbi as he had a rbi single in the fifth inning.

Greg Smith tossed seven innings while giving up five hits and two runs to take the loss.  Smith is now 2-4 even though he pitched well enough to ge a win on Tuesday night.  Tough break for Smith.

One run was charged to Joey Devine in the eighth inning as he pitched in relief of Smith.  Dallas Braden tossed a scoreless ninth inning after Devine exited the game.

A’s RHP reliever Andrew Brown underwent an appendectomy and was placed on the 15-day disabled list to recover from the surgery. The move was retroactive to May 14, one day after Brown last pitched. Oakland recalled LHP Lenny DiNardo from Triple-A Sacramento to fill Brown’s spot.

Athletics Blog

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