The Oakland Athletics lost to the Seattle Mariners on Wednesday night by the score of 6-4.  The A’s gave up five runs in the fifth inning and didn’t have an answer as they were held scoreless after the fifth inning.

Joe Blanton continues to struggle and is now 5-12 after taking the loss.  Blanton tossed six innings as he gave up nine hits and six runs.  Blanton now has a 4.96 era and is not stepping up his game when it is his turn.  I just have to think where the A’s would be if Blanton was throwing the ball like he is capable of.

Jerry Blevins, Santiago Casilla. and Andrew Brown all threw one inning each out of the bullpen and did not allow any runs to score.  Great job by the three relief pitchers who atleast gave the offense the chance to come back in the late innings.

The A’s offense really didn’t do to much in the game.  Jack Cust had a solo home run in the 2nd inning to get the A’s scoring started and then Donnie Murphy had a three run triple that cleared the bases in the fourth inning.  That was all the scoring that the A’s would do in the game as they were held scoreless for the last five innings of the game.

The A’s and Mariners will now play an afternoon game.  With a win Thursday, the A’s will have won the series three games to one so lets all hope they can pull out a victory!  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.

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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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Joe Blanton made one mistake and it was a costly mistake as he gave up a grand slam to Hideki Matsui in the sixth inning and the New York Yankees defeated the Oakland A’s by the score of 4-1. Besides that one mistake, Blanton threw the ball pretty good.  He allowed four runs and six hits in 6 2/3 innings to drop to 1-7 in 10 starts at home this season.

Oakland got on the board first on an RBI single by Carlos Gonzalez in the second inning, but that would be their only run of the game.  They had a good chance of scoring in the fifth inning with runners on third and second base but the Yankees were able to get out of the jam and leave both runners stranded.

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Keith Foulke gave up a rbi double to Alex Rios in the ninth inning that scored the game winning run for the Toronto Blue Jays as they beat the Oakland Athletics 2-1 on Wednesday night.  Foulke pitched the full ninth inning while giving up the one run and taking the loss.

Starting pitcher Joe Blanton pitched very well but got a no decision in the game.  Blanton tossed seven innings while only giving up five hits and one run.  It is too bad he wasn’t able to pitch later into the ballgame as the outcome could have been different.

Jack Cust had the only rbi for the A’s.  Cust singled in the third inning and scored Bobby Crosby.  Other then that one rbi, the A’s really didn’t have much happening for them at the plate.

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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 A’s got completely shut out by the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night as the Indians beat the A’s 2-0.  C.C. Sabathia was on top of his game as he tossed a complete game shut out against the Athletics.

Joe Blanton didn’t pitch too badly, but did give up two runs in his seven innings of action.  Both runs came on two solo home runs in the first and fourth innings.  Without those two mistakes, this could have been a 0-0 game lol.

Keith Foulke came in and pitched a scoreless eighth inning.

It was just an off night the A’s at the plate.  They matched the five hits the Indians put up but two of the Indans hits were home runs and that is why the won the game.

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Mark Ellis finally came out of his long slump with two hits including a walk off home run in the tenth inning to beat the Baltimore Orioles 6-5.  Ellis who is now batting .232 on the season hit his third home run of the season off of Lance Cormier.  The ball bounced off the foul pole down the left field line but of course every knows if the ball hits the pole it is a home run!

Kurt Suzuki had a big two run home run in the to have two RBI.  Emil Brown, Jack Hannahan, Frank Thomas, and Ellis all had one RBI in the game for the Athletics.

Dallas Braden picked up the win as he pitched the 2 1/3 innings of relief.  It was only the second career victory for Braden.  Braden’s first victory also came against the Orioles.

Starting pitcher Joe Blanton didn’t have his best stuff but did keep the A’s in the game and that is what you ask for by your starting pitcher.  Blanton only pitched 5 2/3 innings as he gave up eight hits and two runs.  Andrew Brown had the worst performance by a Athletics pitchers as he only pitched 2/3 of an inning and he allowed four hits and three runs.

With the sweep of the Orioles, the Athletics record is now 22-14 on the season.  Athletics Blog

The Oakland Athletics were ahead 4-3 heading into the seventh inning and then the Minnesota Twins scored a run in the seventh inning to tie the game, and then the go ahead run in the eigth inning as they beat the Athletics 5-4.

Joe Blanton pitched 7.2 innings and took the loss for the Athletics.  Blanton allowed seven hits, four runs (three of them earned), and recorded seven strikeout.  Blanton didn’t pitch bad, he just made a mistake to Craig Monroe who took him deep to tie the game and then Jason Kubel hit a RBI single in the eigth inning.

Emil Brown had a two run home run to lead the A’s at the plate.  Kurt Suzuki also had two RBI in the game.  Suzki singled in the fifth inning to score two runs.

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The Oakland Athletics ran into a buzz saw named Felix Hernandez on Wednesday night as the Athletics lost to the Mariners 4-2.  The A’s just couldn’t get much going againg Hernandez as he threw a complete game for the Mariners.

Joe Blanton took the loss for the Athletics.  Blanton threw right innings but gave up 12 hits and four earned runs.  He didn’t pitch that badly, just needs to get batters out when he has two strikes on them instead of letting them get a two strike hit.

Daric Barton was the only A’s batter to record an RBI in the game.

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