Black Jacks! A’s win again!

The two Jacks, Hannahan and Cust, put the A’s over the top to give them the win 4-3.  Backed by what else, but another solid pitching performance by Josh Outman who received timely run support to give him his fourth victory.

After the Twins put up a three spot in the top of the fourth, Jack Hannahan matched it in the bottom half of the inning by driving in three with a bases-clearing double to left center. This all came after Aaron Cunningham was drilled in the head by fastball to load the bases. The next inning proved to be the difference as Jack Cust crushed a solo-shot to right to give the A’s the final score of 4-3.

Outman was roughed up in the third but that was it. Outman (3-3) went six innings, striking out seven and surrendered all three runs on four hits, he walked two.

The draft begins tomorrow, what position would you guy’s like to be filled with the first pick? pitching, offense?

Take it easy A’s fans, seven straight is nice but eight is better!

Trevor Cahill vs. Erik Bedard round two, fight!

It was a great fight today boys, but somebody had to win and it went to the team who doesn’t retain the anemic, non-existent force, who is Rajai Davis and the recently looney Russ Springer.

Mariners 6, Athletics 1

The offense was limited to five hits, one home run and the rest singles..Yes singles. Bobby Crosby hit the home run of all people. The 7-8-9 lineup should never look like this: Crosby, Rajai Davis, Jack Hannahan. Why can’t the A’s have Travis Buck or Aaron Cunningham in the lineup instead of Rajai Davis, who might as well of been a lefty facing another lefty today.

More ranting I know but it needs to be said.

Russ Springer, or “old-man Springer” which I like to call him, for some reason can barely get outs. Today he came into the ninth with a 4-1 Mariner lead and gave up three straight single, one that led to two runs, an out, another single, before getting out of the inning with a doulbel play. Something must me going on with Springer, family related or injury related I don’t know, but something needs to be done. Maybe a DL stint.

It’s a shame the A’s can’t back up a solid rookie performance from Cahill. Cahill (2-5) today went six innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits while striking out five and walking one.

It’s alive! At least it was Tuesday night. The A’s beat up on the Kansas City Royals 12-3.

After a short pep talk-initiated by Orlando Cabrera-with the offense, it didn’t take long to notice it had worked, as the A’s slaughtered the Royals pitching in the first four innings for 12 runs. The offense was led by whom else but motivational expert himself, Orland Cabrera.

Not only was it a great offensive performance, but the pitching didn’t disappoint either.

Starter Trevor Cahill (2-2) started things off shaky through the first two frames by loading the bases with two out ion the first, but he survived. The second inning was similar as Cahill gave up two hits but got out of the jam as well. He cruised through then next two innings before giving up solo home runs to Coco Crisp in the fifth, and Mike Jacobs in the sixth. His line was six innings, two earned runs, seven hits, two walks, and two strike outs.  Overall he pitched an effective game, although he still needs to work on his command, at times it looks as if he has no idea where his pitches will go. However, he does have an ERA of 3.69, not bad for the rookie.

This is what Billy Pitt paid for…

Orlando Cabrera had three hits to go along with four RBI’s while Matt Holliday, Jack Cust, and Kurt Suzuki each had two hits a piece. Cust had three RBI, all coming on a three-run sky-rocket home run to center. The remaining RBI’s went to Matt Hollday (2), Jason Giambi (2),and Jack Hannahan (1).

A’s beat the Blue Jays 5-3

Record now at 11-16

A five-run fifth inning ignited by Ryan Sweeney’s two-run shot to right was just what the doctor ordered. Jack Hannahan and Kurt Suzuki both drove in run’s with doubles, and Orlando Cabrera getting his RBI with an single.

The bullpen held their own tonight with 4 2/3 of shutout ball, with MIchael Wuertz (2-1) early entrance making him the winning pitcher. Starter Josh Outman (o-o) unfortunately labored through the third inning, costing him the win as he needed over 100 pitches to get through 4 1/3 innings. His third inning, in which he gave up the three runs, lasted over 35 pitches.

This is the kind of baseball I think were going to have to get used to, big innings from both our offense and pitching. The pitching seems to yield all of it’s runs in  one big inning, if they can minimize it-like they did tonight- they can be successful.

Other news from the game has to be the ugly defense.

Bobby Crosby at second and the unlikely Orlando Cabrera at short, both committing what looked like costly errors, fortunately the pen held down the fort.

At least they got a win.

The Oakland A’s bats were hot Monday night however the pitching staff was terrible and the A’s still lost. The A’s gave up 14 runs to the Detroit Tigers and lost the first game of the series by the score of 14-8. Talk about a let down by the pitching staff.

Starting pitcher Gio Gonzalez only lasted 1 2/3 innings as he gave up five hits and charged with nine runs. A terrible start for Gonzalez as he put the Athletics in a big hole early in the game. The bullpen for the A’s wasn’t any better however as they gave up five more runs. Josh Outman was bad as he gave up four hits and three runs, Alan Embree was charged with one run while Jeff Gray also gave up one run.

Rajai Davis and Jack Hannahan both added two rbi each for the A’s at the plate. Daric Barton, Kurt Suzuki, Eric Patterson, and Cliff Pennington all chipped in with one rbi each as well. You can’t but the blame on the offense when they scored eight runs, they were not the reason the team lost this game.

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 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?

Athletics Blog

This time it was Rich Harden and the Oakland Athletics shutting out the Philadelphia Phillies 3-0.  Last night the Phillies shut out the A’s, so this time it was just a little pay back as the A’s took two out of three games in the series.

Harden was absolutely marvelous as he gave two hits and pitched eight innings before turning things over to Alan Embree in the ninth.  Embree did give up a triple to Pat Burrell but then got Ryan Howard out for the final out of the game.  Harden improved his record to 5-0 with the victory.  Be prepared to hear more trade rumors considering Harden after this outing.

Ryan Sweeney, Jack Cust, Bobby Crosby, and Jack Hannahan all had one rbi in the game for the A’s.  The A’s scored one unearned run in the ninth inning as well in the game.

The A’s are now 43-35 on the season as the head into a weekend series with the San Francisco Giants.  Are you a A’s fan that enjoys talking and writing about the A’s?  We are currently looking for a new contributer that would like to write some game recaps similiar to this.  If you are interested, please use the contact us link at the top of the site or leave us a comment in this post and we will get back to you!

A’s Blog

The Oakland Athletics completed a three game sweep of the Detroit Tigers on Wednesday with a 10-2 victory.  The A’s were finally able to get things going in the middle innings and force Tigets starting pitcher Nate Robinson out of theg ame and then took advantage of a weak Tigers bullpen.

Carlos Gonzalez led the team with three rbi in the game and was followed by Bobby Crosby who had two rbi.  Travis Buck went deep and had one rbi as did Jack Hannahan, Daric Barton, and Rob Bowen.

Justin Duchscherer picked up the win and is now 5-4 on the season.  Duchscherer tossed 6 2/3 innings and only gave up three hits and two runs in the game.  He did walk five however, and that was the reason he was pulled after six plus innings.

Alan Embree, Brad Ziegler, and Kiko Calero finished things up in the game for the A’s and only gave up one hit.  It was a good job all the way around for the Athletics.  They will hope to continue playing this good on Friday when they begin a huge series with the Los Angeles Angels.

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