Tonight’s game against the Rangers has been postponed due to rain.

Mark Ellis and Nomar Garciaparra have been placed on the disabled list as expected, after suffering similar calf injuries.

The A’s called up infielder Erik Patterson and reliever Kevin Cameron from Sacramento.

I’m sure no one is shocked by this news, but being the optimist that I am, I like the Patterson move. As of right now were not losing much because Ellis hasn’t been his defensive self this year and Patterson might be able to provide some offensive spark, and he can steal some bags.

Now the pessimistic side of me, however, hates to see Garciaparra placed on the DL, but who was he kidding. He’s just that type of player at this point in his career, whatever we get from him we’ll take it. They didn’t pay him much anyways.

What are your guys feelings now?

Four A’s players (Garciaparra, Ellis, Anderson, Casilla) left Tuesday’s game versus the Rangers with injuries, Garciaparra and Ellis with calf injuries, Anderson a blister, and Casilla an apparent leg injury.

By the way, the A’s (7-10) lost 5-4thanks to some spotty defense, and what I’m calling some awkward circumstances. Two pitchers left the game injured (Anderson, and Casilla) with at bats still in progress and both resulted in two runs, which proved to be the difference.

The A’s are more than on pace to meet last years 54 appearances on the DL, hope I’m worng.

The offense tonight did manage to get 10 hits, although they were all singles aside from Sweeney’s home run. Brett Anderson had a pitching line as such: five plus innings pitched, four runs (one earned), three hits, two walks, and five strikeouts. Too bad he had to leave early.  Orlando Cabrera went three for four, Ryan Sweeney, two for four with one RBI, and Bobby Crosby had two hits in three at bats.

Trends:

Matt Holliday’s inability to hit, Matt Holliday’s inability to hit, and… forget it, he just looks awful, and me using the Woosah phrase too much.

Wishful trends:

Ryan Sweeney hitting the long ball, Orlando Cabrera going three for four, and Brett Anderson pitching like a veteran, all on a consistent basis.

Don’t panick just yet, Woosah Woosah

You gotta love this game!

A’s win it in the ninth with three runs off garbage closer Brian Fuentes, (personal shot I know but it’s a blog) after trailing most of the night three nothing. The A’s got to the Angels bullpen for three in the eighth and three more in the ninth, then Brad Ziegler shut the door.

MVP of the night for me is Ryan Sweeney who continued hitting tonight with another three-hit performance, the most pivotal of the three coming in the eighth with two on and two out. Sweeney roped a line drive single up the middle to put the A’s within reaching distance. The ninth then came around and with two outs, Suzuki squibbed a hit up halfway up the first base line that should have ended the game, but Angels closer Fuentes and catcher Napoli hesitated and Suzuki was safe. Next up was pinch-hitter Nomar Garciaparra who hit a floater into left that drove in the tying run.

The next two runs came via base hits from Mark Ellis and “sick boy” Matt Holiday. Holiday came into the game as a pinch hitter because he was sick with the flu. The guy gets my respect with the effort, although earlier I was a little frustrated not seeing him in the lineup again.

A’s  burly left-hander Dana Eveland went six innings while giving up three earned runs, eight hits, and walking two, while striking out four. Eveland was cruising through the game until the fourth, where he surrendered all three runs and four hits.

Rookie reliever Andrew Bailey got the win, his first ever Major League victory as he continued to impress with another scoreless inning of relief.

Take it easy A’s fans

A’s take game two from rival Angels, 6-4

Man I love having “the bouncer” back in the lineup. He makes me wanna scream, “you’re my boy blue!”

Tonight, although a nail-biter for Major League virgin pitcher Trevor Cahill and some of us fans, showcased what the A’s are capable of offensively and defensively.

Cust will drop some little league fly balls and cost the A’s runs, while the remaining Oakland defense will mostly do what’s expected of a major-league club.

Garciaparra tonight gets my praise, as he dug up some difficult in-betweener’s from Erik Chavez and Orlando Cabrera.  Also, I’m swallowing my words (for now) from yesterday but not digesting them until I can see some consistency from Garciaparra at first, but tonight he really was big for the A’s.

I won’t waste any time on the Cust in right field drama, we all know too well by now, but I will say this, he got one more than he gave up, so that’s a plus. The remaining offense was great tonight, 16 hits! Nice 2009 coming out parties for Giambi, Cust, and Sweeney, all with three hits, while Gaciaparra and Ellis had two apiece.

Young Trevor Cahill had to be feeling it tonight, facing the division rival Angels, a huge stage, bigger expectations, and a bunch of family and friends all watching. Considering all of that, he did pretty well. He will have to be more consistent though, to stay up, but he held his own going five, walking five, and giving up five hits, while serving up three runs (two of them earned).

Oh, and I forgot to mention, Matt Holiday was absent.

Nice job without their stud.

Until tomorrow, go green and gold!

Let’s forget about today’s home opener shall we.

The A’s leaving nine on base leaves an acrid 2008-like taste in my mouth, anyone else? Chavez wasn’t even in the lineup (add two to three more). At least we saw Matt Holiday and promising prospect Aaron Cunningham drive in runs and the important pitchers mostly doing their jobs.

The A’s took the loss Friday eight to five to the Brewers in their spring home opener.

The goods: Dana Eveland going two innings without surrendering a hit.

The surprise: Jerome Williams going two giving up only one hit.

And the bad: A’s hitters with men on base (obviously).

If a trend is emerging early out of camp, it’s the Oakland starters. They’re doing an impressive job early on, while the relievers in many cases are not. Obviously most relievers showcased so far are long shots to make the club so fear not worry warts, it’s just spring training. After all If we look at last years spring training record, and how the A’s finished in the 2008 regular season, we might want to see them lose more often. Well at least until I get down there.

All sarcasm put to the side, Chavez’ health will probably determine the fate of the offense. If Chavez proves healthy, we could conceivably looking at four 25 plus homer seasons in the starting lineup. Holliday, Giambi, Cust, Chavez, and Crosby could make it five, but don’t take my word on the last guy.

The lineup to my likes ( baring any trades):

1.Ryan Sweeney

2.Mark Ellis (if healthy)

3.Jack Cust

4.Matt Holliday

5.Jason Giambi (AKA “the bouncer)

6.Erik Chavez (if healthy)

7.Bobby Crosby

8.Travis Buck

9.Kurt Suzuki
Now it’s possible the A’s acquire Orlando Cabrera and Aaron Cunningham wins the starting spot over Buck so keep that in consideration. This lineup if healthy will score runs no doubht, but is it better than the Angels? I say yes. tell me what you think.

Second basemen Mark Ellisa and the Oakland Athletics have agreed on a new two year contract that includes an team option for the third year. The A’s mentioned early on that they would like to have Ellis back and Ellis didn’t want to go anywhere so working out the contract between both parties was pretty easy.

The two year contract will pay Ellis $11 million dollars while the third year would pay him six million dollars or a $500,000 buyout. Now the key for Ellis is staying healthy and playing great defense while hitting for average and getting on base.

Good signing as long as he stays healthy in my opinion.

The Oakland Athletics bats faltered on Wednesday afternoon as they lost to the Minnesota Twins by the score of 3-1. The A’s pushed across one run in the first inning but then were held scoreless the final eight innings of the game. The A’s ended up losing the three game series one game to two and are now 57-69 on the season.

Dallas Braden took the loss after being charged with six hits and three runs over 5 2/3 innings. Braden gave up single runs in the first, third, and sixth innings. Huston Street and Alan Embree both seen action out of the bullpen and held the Twins to the three runs that Braden had given up.

The one run for the A’s that came in the first inning happened when Jack Cust reached on an infield single and Mark Ellis scored. That was all the offense for the A’s as they were limited to just five hits in the game.

Athletics Baseball Blog

The Oakland A’s jumped out to a 1-0 lead after the first inning and then held onto beat the Minnesota Twins 3-2 as the two teams opened up a three game series in Minnesota. The A’s got a big boost from Kirk Saarloos who was called up from Triple-A and pitched out of the bullpen.

Saarloos came into the game after Justin Duchscherer left the game in the third inning with hip pain. Saarloos would go onto throw 3 2/3 innings while onling giving up one hit. He pitched very good and picked up the win which was his first at the major league level this year.

The Twins tried to make things interesting late in the game as they scored one run off of Huston Street and then another one off of Brad Ziegler. Ziegler was able to calm down however and pick up his third save of the season.

Mark Ellis got the A’s on the scoreboard in the first inning with a solo home run. The A’s would then score two more runs in the fourth inning on a Kurt Suzuki single that scored Frank Thomas and Jack Cust. There wasn’t much offense but it was enough to get the victory over the Twins.

Athletics Baseball 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 lost to the Kansas City Royals for the second straight game on Tuesday night.  The A’s just couldn’t get much going at the plate against Gil Meche and they will now have to win on Wednesday to avoid the embarrasing three game sweep at home against the Royals.

Athletics starting pitcher Greg Smtih served up two home runs including a three run shot in the seventh inning to John Buck as he took the loss.  Smith is now a terrible 5-10 on the year.  He did only give four hits in his seven innings of action, but two of those hits were home runs and he just can’t do that if he wants to keep the team in a position to win.

Mark Ellis got the A’s scoring started with a rbi single in the fourth inning.  Jack Cust scored on the Ellis single.  In the seventh inning, Bobby Crosby grounded out to the pitcher and Ellis scored the second and final run for the A’s.  The Athletics struckout 10 times and left 11 runners on base in the game.

Hopefully the team can atleast win on Wednesday to avoid the sweep.  Oakland Athletics Baseball