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.

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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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Bobby Crosby came up huge in he ninth inning on Monday night as he delivered the game winning hit and the Oakland Athletics defeated the Detroit Tigers by the score of 3-2.  Crosby singled in Kurt Suzuki for the game winning run.

Mark Ellis and Daric Barton both had one rbi in the game to go along with Crosby’s.  The Athletics had nine hits but only scored three times.  The offense was lucky that the pitching staff held the Tigers to only five hits in the game or this could have turned out to be a different story.

Rich Harden got things going for the A’s on the mound as he tossed 6 2/3 innings while giving up five hits and two runs.  Both runs that Harden gave up were in the sixth inning.  One run was on a solo home run and the other came on a single.  Harden ended up getting the no decision in the contest even though he threw the ball pretty good.

Keith Foulke pitched 1 1/3 inning before turning things over to Huston Street in the ninth inning.  Street walked one batter before picking up his first win of the season.

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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.

Want to write for Athletics HomePlate? Use the contact us link at the top and let us know if you would be intereseted in writing some game recaps!  Athletics Blog

The Oakland Athletics improved their current road trip record to 6-1 with a 2-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Monday night.  Greg Smith outdueled Mark Buehrle as the two teams played in some chilly weather in Chicago.

Smith pitched seven inning of six hit baseball and only allowed one earned run.  He also picked off two base runners in the game.  He says he like to shut down the opposing teams running game and has really worked hard on his pickoff move.

Santiago Casilla, Alan Embree, and Huston Street pitched the final two scoreless inning.  Street picked up his fourth save of the season.

Kurt Suzuki led the A’s at the plate as he went 4-4 with one RBI.  Emil Brown also contributed with one RBI.

I always hope for more then two runs being scored, but on Monday night those two runs were enough to defeat the White Sox.  The A’s record now stands at 9-5.

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The Oakland Athletics let a two run lead slip away in the bottom of the 8th inning, and then regained that lead on a Ryan Sweeney triple that scored Kurt Suzuki in the 9th inning as they went onto beat the Toronto Blue Jays 9-8.

Sweeney collected two RBI, while, Travis Buck, Mark Ellis, Daric Barton, Mike Sweeney, Jack Cust, and Suzuki all collected one RBI.  Talk about spreading the offense up and down the lineup!

Alan Embree picked up the win for the Athletics and Huston Street picked up his first save of the season.

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If the rest of the season is as exciting as the first game, we are going to be in for one hell of a ride lol.  Even though the A’s lost to the Boston Red Sox 6-5 in 10 innings there were some good things from the game.

Getting off to the fast start was nice to see.  The A’s rattled Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka in the first inning when Mark Ellis went deep for his first homerun of the season, and the A’s scored another run to take a quick 2-0 lead when Bobby Crosby grounded out to the pitcher but but scored Daric Barton.

Jack Hannahan hit a two run homer in the 6th inning that made the score 4-3 A’s, but it wasn’t enough as Huston Street would later blow the save in the 9th inning when Brandon Moss hit a homerun and then take the loss in the 10th inning after giving up a game winning double to Manny Ramirez.

The two teams will play one more game before coming back to the United States.

The Athletics also announced that Eric Chavez and Chad Gaudin have been placed on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 19th.

On Thursday evening, the Oakland Athletics signed closer Huston Street to a one year contract to what is believed to be worth $3.3 million dollars.  Good money for Street who is a pretty damn good closer.

I would have liked to see the A’s lock up Street with a longterm deal, say in the three to four year range but I think it came down to a money issue between both people.  The A’s as we all know don’t like giving out big pay raises to their players and Street is the next big A’s pitcher that you could possibly see get traded down the road.

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