Fremont Bound

April 5, 1989 at the Oakland Coliseum
Athletics 11, Mariners 1  (2-0)

The Athletics made it two straight behind a signficant offensive outburst by the A’s bats.  Of course lost in all of the offense was an outstanding start by veteran Bob Welch.  The right hander gave up just a single run on four hits in eight innings of work and the lone blemish was a solo home run in the fifth inning by Mariners’ catcher Dave Valle.

After stranding two baserunners in the first inning, the Athletics struck in the second.  With two outs, Mike Gallego singled and then Walk Weiss went yard to make it 2-0.  The A’s actually got a couple more baserunners after the long ball, but like the first inning, they left two runners on base.

The Athletics struck again in the fifth when Mark McGwire belted his second homerun in as many days.  He did it with two outs when it looked like the Mariners might get out of the inning unscathed.

After three uneventful innings, the A’s opened things up in the sixth inning.  Ron Hassey led off the inning with a ground out to second base before Felix Jose singled to center.  Gallego then pushed Jose over to second with a double.  Then it looked like the A’s might strand some more runners because Jose was gunned down on a comebacker to the pitcher by Wal Weiss but Gallego scored on an error by Harold Reynolds.  Luis Polonia then singled home Weiss to make it 5-1.  Polonia stole second before Dave Henderson drew a walk and then Dave Parker doubled them both home to make it 7-1.

The eighth frame was another big inning for the A’s.  Gallego led off with a double and then he scored on Walt Weiss’ second home run of the game. Luis Polonia lined out but then Stan Javier singled.  Dave Parker then belted his first homerun of the season to make it 11-1.

Overall, Weiss finished three for four with three runs and four RBIs.  Dave Parker also drove in four runs while Polonia went one for three with two walks, one run, one RBI and two stolen bases.

April 3, 1989 at the Oakland Coliseum
Athletics 3, Mariners 2  (1-0)

With the A’s 1988 World Series loss to the Dodgers still fresh on their minds, the home team got off to a nice start in front of their home town fans in their 1989 season opener.  It was a solid pitcher’s duel with only five runs between the two teams but some early offense by slugger Mark McGwire and some excellent bullpen work helped the A’s win this one.

One thing to note was this was also the very first game that Ken Griffey, Jr. and Omar Vizquel played.  He batted number two and he doubled in his first big league at bat.  He later drew a walk and scored one of the Mariners two runs. Vizquel went 0 for three in the number eight slot.

The Athletics didn’t waste much time in this one.  Tony Phillips led off the bottom of the first with a double before Dave Henderson was hit by a pitch.  Carney Lansford flew out to center and that allowed Phillips to advance to third and that set up a one out sac. fly by Mark McGwire to make it 1-0.

The Athletics then struck again in the third.  Carney Lansford singled with one out then moved to second on an error by Vizquel.  Mark McGwire then followed that up with a two run blast to give the A’s a 3-0 lead.

In the meantime, Dave Stewart was cruising along.  He didn’t allow a run until the fifth when Edgar Martinez singled home Jeffrey Leonard.  Then in the sixth, Griffey walked and later scored on Darnell Coles single before Tony LaRussa went to the pen.  Gene Nelson came into the sixth with one out and two runners on and he salvaged the inning by striking out the final two batters in the frame.

From there, the Mariners never really threatened the A’s pen and they garnered just a single hit in the final three frames.  Nelson pitched a shutout seventh and then Rick Honeycutt got the first two batters out in the eighth before the A’s big closer, Dennis Eckersley, came in.  He got the final out in the eighth and then didn’t yield a base runner in the ninth to earn his first save of the season.

The A’s never got much more from there offense but the three runs were enough. McGwire was the lone hitter with two hits  and the only other extra base hit was the first inning lead off double by Phillips.

The Athletics got a nice outing out of Josh Outman yesterday and he came an out short of getting through the sixth.  He gave up two runs on five hits and one walk with six strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings.  Santiago Casilla also had a nice game with two shutout frames.

Travis Buck had three RBIs and a triple.  Ryan Sweeney was the lone A with a pair of hits.

Dallas Braden gets the nod today.  Spring training is winding down folks.  The real games start soon.

Just like the A’s won the other day, they lost to the Rangers 8-5 and it was a big inning that cost them.  Edgar Gonzalez gave up six runs in the third inning in the beat down and it all came on seven hits and two walks.  Of course Jost Outman was one of the relievers who shined and he did it with four shutout innings.

Kurt Suzuki went two for four with a double and an RBI.  Ryan Sweeney tripled, drove in two runs and scored once.  Gregorio Petit had a particularly rough game with two strikeouts in three at bats and he left five men on base.

Brett Anderson, who’s looked sharp so far this spring, gets the start tomorrow against the Indians.  Michael Wuertz is also set to throw.

The Athletics scored nine runs in the third inning but a four run night by the Angels made this game an interesting.  Still, the comeback by LA fell short in the 10-8 win.  Trevor Cahill was knocked around for four runs in the second inning but the pen did a nice job until that ninth inning.  Michael Wuertz and Jared Lansford were strong with two strikeouts in their shutout innings.  Andrew Carignan was the culprit in the ninth and he was the one who was tagged for four runs.

Travis Buck had a monster game.  He went three for four with a homerun, three RBIs and three runs.  The long ball was his third of the season.  Landon Powell also had a nice game and he went two for three with a walk, a run and an RBI.

The Diamondbacks are next.  Sean Gallagher and Vin Mazzaro will see some time on the mound in tomorrow’s game.

After a hodge podge of writers last year, I’m back.  Not that it means much, but I’m hoping to make it longer then the half season back in 2007.  In the meantime, the site’s almost obsolete because the Athletics might not be heading to Fremont after all.   Still, this is home and I’m returning to cover the A’s this season.

The A’s racked up another solid win yesterday behind a solid offensive attack and some good mound work by Brett Anderson.  Brett piled up four shutout innings and he gave up just three hits in the 7-1 win.  Chris Schroder struck out two in his single frame while Jerome Williams threw two perfect innings to close out the game.

Daric Barton was the hitting star.  He went two for two with a double and three RBIs. Jack Cust was the lone A to homer.  The long ball was his second of the spring.

Justin Duchscherer and that has thrown the Athletics rotation plans for a loop.  Sean Gallagher, who was also penciled into the rotation, has been hammered so far this spring.  This has caused manager Bob Geren to hesitate when he talks about how the rotation is shaping up.

More on the injury front, Mark Ellis looks like he might be ready in three weeks for opening day.  On a bad note, Eric Chavez doesn’t look like he’ll be ready.

This afternoon, the A’s play the Dodgers.  Trevor Cahill will get the start in this one.

The Athletics signed Jason Giambi to a one year, $4 million dollar deal today that brings Giambi back to the team where he had his best seasons.  If he hits 525 and 550 plate appearances, he’ll earn an additional $250k for each benchmark so if things work as planned, he should end up with $4.5 million.  There’s also a club option for 2010 at $6.5 million.

Not too shabby after Giambi revived his career with 32 homeruns and a .502 slugging percentage last year.  He’ll fill in nicely at designated hitter and while his days at frst but so far the A’s have been mum about where he’s going to play.

Baseball season is right around the corner and I got a taste of it at Christmas.  My son will be playing his first little league season this summer so we bought him a baseball bat and baseball glove for Christmas.  We picked up both at Baseball Rampage, and they were very helpful on the telephone and had a great selection of equipment.

The A’s continue to hit the road in a season where the final two months haven’t mattered too much.  They finish up with the Mariners then the first place Angels wrap up the road trip.  Then the contending Twins come to town.  Probably the only bonus of the A’s being bad is tickets aren’t hard to come by but I really want to impress some business clients of mine.  The A’s box office didn’t have the sweet seats so for the first time, I used a baseball ticket broker and was very pleased by the experience.

It took 11 innings, but Oakland finally beat the Marlins 7-6 with a Suzuki walk-off double.

The game remained scoreless until the fourth inning when the A’s scored three runs, and maintained the lead until the ninth when Florida’s Uggla homered to tie things up at 6-6. With a runner on first and no outs in the bottom of the 11th, Suzuki’s double ended the heart-wrenching game.

It was a good day all-around for Suzuki, who had five RBIs including a two-run homer.

Well the Giants certainly kept things interesting. Although the team was swept by Oakland in the three-game series (5-1, 4-0, and 5-3), they didn’t allow Oakland to score more than five runs in any game, and struck first in two of the meetings. Unfortunately for the Giants, Oakland never allowed them to have more than a one-run lead at any time.

The Athletics just seemed to do everything right. The bats were swinging, and converting into runs. The pitchers (Greg Smith, Rich Harden, Dana Eveland, and Huston Street) were solid. The chemistry just flowed. The series was really marked by Eric Chavez, the third baseman who had been struggling in the past but came alive in the final game with several RBIs.