Fremont Bound

Poor Baltimore. The A’s have been perfect so far this week, including their three-game sweep of the Orioles. I’m not saying it wasn’t close. Oakland won two in the final innings, one being a walk-off homer by Mark Ellis. But in the end, Oakland was able to pull out a victory. Over and over and over again.

The pitching staff also did their part. The team gave up a total of eight runs in the series while Devine, Duscherer, and Braden all picked up wins.

After a much deserved day off, the team will play at Texas on Friday to open a three-game series. Hopefully, they can keep their streak alive.

The A’s are holding their own. The traditionally good team needs to bounce back from last year’s losing season, and so far, they’ve been doing well. With a win last night in Los Angeles, the team is now tied with the Angels for first place in their division.

And it wasn’t just any win; it was a beating. Oakland scored fifteen runs on TWENTY hits in the 15-8 victory. If anything, this game was a statement to Oakland’s main competition saying that they are a serious force this season. The stand-out player for Oakland were Jack Cust who went 4-for-4 in the attack on LA’s bullpen. The starter, Nick Adenhart, only lasted two full innings, and gave up four runs before being pulled.

The A’s play tonight in a three game series at home against Texas, and hopefully, they will be able to carry the same fervor into tonight’s game.

The last three games have been big for the A’s. The four-game series with the LA Angels is a huge opportunity to make or break the season thus far. Unfortunately, so far the team has lost two of three games, and is a full game behind. A win tonight would tie the teams’ records, and they would share the top spot of the AL West. Tonight, Oakland’s pitcher Ducherscherer faces LA’s Adenhart in a very important game.

Close and low-scoring define the games in Oakland’s series against Seattle pretty well. This weekend, Oakland scored a total of 11 runs, compared to Seattle’s 10. In all the three games, (Oakland won the first and third, Seattle the second,) the margin of victory was two runs or less.

Fortunately for the team, the LA Angels suffered three losses this week, setting them half a game back, and making Oakland the leaders of the AL West. What will really set a divide in this race is the four game series between the Angels and A’s starting tomorrow in Los Angeles.

Chad Gaudin did a great job. The pitcher lasted seven innings for the A’s, giving up only four hits and zero runs.

This was good for Oakland, who only scored three runs on five hits. Those hits included a Mark Sweeney homerun AND additional RBI and run. Sweeney took part in all three of Oakland’s runs.

This boosts Gaudin’s record to 2-1 and the team’s record to 13-9, still tied with the LA Angels for first in the AL West. The team will face Minnesota one last time before heading to Seattle tomorrow.

After a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals, Oakland dropped the first game of their series against the Minnesota Twins this evening in Oakland 5-4.

Joe Blanton was on the mound for Oakland, and lasted well into the eighth inning, when he left the game tied at 4-4, with runners on first and third. He was relieved by Alan Embree, who faced one batter, giving up a single and a run on a single. That would be enough to lose the game. Embree was immediately relieved by Casilla, who struck out the next batter to end the inning. The bottom of the eight and the full ninth remained scoreless and only had three base runners.

 The A’s picked up a total of eight hits, and did well in the fifth and sixth innings, where six of their hits and all four of their runs came from. In the end, it easily could have gone either way, and although Oakland’s record adds a loss to become 12-9, they remained tied for first in the AL West.

Fifteen hits.

That’s more than the A’s have hit combined in their recent three-game losing streak. That goes for their number of runs scored as well, in the team’s 13-2 win over the Kansas City Royals last night in Oakland.

Last night Oakland seemed to be able to combine strong hitting with  a tough bullpen. Chad Gaudin lasted seven innings, only giving up four hits and two runs. Meanwhile, Royals pitcher Brian Bannister couldn’t last six innings against Oakland’s powerful offense. He left the game just behind with a score of 3-2 Oakland, but his many relievers only sunk deeper into a loss, and the A’s scored eight runs just in the eighth innng.

 The Royals will be playing again in Oakland for game two of the three game series, with Smith on the mound for Oakland and Greinke pitching for the Kansas City. Let’s hope Oakland stays strong on the bats and in the bullpen for this game.

Oakland was limited to three runs in a two-game series against Seattle.

In all fairness, Felix Hernandez pitched a great game on Wednesday. He lasted nine innings and gave up eight hits and just two runs. Compare that to Oakland’s Joe Blanton, who lasted eight innings, but gave up twelve hits and four runs, including four hits and three runs in the first inning alone.

 But that was nothing compared to Thursday’s showing. After a scoreless two innings, things fell apart for Oakland in the thrid. Lennny DiNardo, on the mound, gave up three hits, walked three batters, and scred three runs.  He was relieved by Saarloos who got the remaining two outs, but not before giving up another two runs. Oakland’s only rebuttal came in the fourth inning where they scored one run off of an Emil Brown triple. Unfortunately, Seattle ended up scoring another three runs to increase their lead to 8-1.

Oakland opens up a three game series tonight at home.

Daric Barton. Emil Brown. Mike Sweeney. Chris Denorfia. Travis Buck. And Daric Barton again. These are your power hitters, the only ones that could hit off of the Chicago White Sox pitcher John Danks, a man who hasn’t picked up a win since last July. At least these guys put the ball in play; the rest of the team went hitless for the night, and none of the hits occurred in the same inning.

To be fair, some of the blame could be placed on pitcher Dana Eveland. Chicago picked up four of their five hits against him during his for innings pitched. During a shaky fourth inning, Eveland hit a batter, walked a batter, gave up a three-run homerun and a double before retiring the next three batters.

 Oakland’s only run came off of a sacrifice fly late in the ninth inning of their 4-1 loss. The team will have a chance to redeem themselves tomorrow, when they begin a two-game series at home against Seattle.

In his debut pitching for Oakland, the left-handed Smith gave up six hits and one run in seven innings to the Chicago White Sox Monday. Casilla and Embree took care of the eighth inning and Huston Street finished out the tense ninth inning, while Oakland clung to their 2-1 lead.

 On the offensive side, Suzuki went four for four with an RBI. In fact, the whole team came alive with ten hits. The problem, it seems, for both teams was turning hits into runs. Both teams had a combined total of eighteen hits and three runs.

 This win gives the A’s a record of 9-5, still on top of the AL West, and one game ahead of the LA Angels.