Rock and Roll

Now that it's the off season I think I'll be trying my hand at reviewing records. So this new blog "Tastelikedirt Record Reviews" will be getting updated a bit more than this A's blog...for a while. Till spring that is.

Justin Duchscherer

Justin Duchscherer was going to be the Ace of the staff going into the 2009 season. Instead he got injured late in spring training. After the rehab and all he was going to make his first start late August. Then he was scratched. It seems like that may have happened more than once. The A's wouldn't give any info on weather he was hurt again or what the deal was. The A's said it was a non baseball related issue. Finally it was announced he would not play in 2009. Later it was explained that he was suffering from clinical depression.
I sent this card maybe in March to spring training. It may even have been earlier, last year maybe? It came back to me in the mail yesterday. Signed by the Duke of Hurl himself. Justin made it to the All Star game as a reliever in 2005. In 2008 he returned to the All Star game this time as a starter. I think my letter must have made Duke feel better. I'm happy to get this card in the mail. Thanks a lot Duke!

Justins' first major league start was September 9 2003. His first son was born the same day. He won!

Andrew Bailey

A’s closer Andrew Bailey was named the American League Rookie of the Year today. The third A’s player in the six years to be named Rookie of the Year.

A's Free Agents

Adam Kennedy

These are the guys from the 2009 team that are now free agents.

Edgar Gonzalez - See you later.
Adam Kennedy - It would be nice to keep Kennedy around.
Bobby Crosby - See you later.
Justin Duchscherer - Back from injury...not so sure.
Nomar Garciaparra - See you later.
Brett Tomko - Not so good, but was not too bad for the A's...see you later.

Sadie

Sadie made it to four games this year. The first, opening day when she was about four months old.

Playoff's 2009

Here are my predictions.

The Cardinals lost 6 of 10 headed into the playoffs' they'll probably get swept and be the first to be eliminated. Plus they have Matt Holliday, he'll probably do something lame. See you next year St. Louis.

I think this year the Angels will finally get past the Red Sox. Even though the Angels don't seem as dominant as they have in the last few years. Probably will sweep them.

New York will take care of the Twins. Twins are down one of their best players. Your gonna have to have your best against the Yankees. Yankees will probably sweep 'em.

Phillies and Rockies this series is the only one that won't be a sweep either way. Weather might be a factor, who knows a game may even be postponed. These will probably be some entertaining games...could go either way but Phillies should take care of business. Huston Street will probably blow at least one big one. Carlos Gonzalez should have a big series.

ALCS
Yankees against Angels.--I expect at least one game going extra innings probably two. The Yankees should overpower the Angels. I think Alex Rodriguez will come up big. It will go at least 6 games, Angels should have a couple dramatic comebacks.

NLCS
Phillies against Dodgers --Phillies. Boring.

World Series
Yankees against Phillies
Phillies will pretty much be overpowered by the Yankees. The Phillies should hit a few home runs in their tiny ballpark. Maybe win a game or two, but it will be all Yankees.

The Final Series #51 Angels in Oakland

Game 1: The A's were never really in it, but Gio had 10 strike outs then they had the tying run up to bat in the bottom of the ninth, but lose 5-2.

Game 2: A's lose.

Game 3: Last game of the year. I'm headed down. Edgar Gonzalez sucks so bad, Bob Geren said he might have guys from the bullpen start the game. Maybe Brad Kilby or Jerry Blevins. Neither have ever started a major league game, and would only pitch the first couple innings.

I made it to the game. It was all bullpen all the time. If memory serves me correctly. Brad Kilby got the start. he pitched a couple innings, then Jerry Blevins for a couple then...
Breslow
Ziegler
Weurtz
Bailey
is was cool to see all those guys get showcased.

Nomar at bat in maybe his last game ever. He was DH. (He went 2-3)

The A's were behind most of the game, but as usual they made a run at 'em in the ninth but fell short. I think the final score was 5-2 or 5-3.

The A's end the season 75-87. 22 games out of first place.

Series 50 A's at Mariners

Game 1: A's lose 6-4.

Game 2: Sucked. A's lose 7-0.

Game 3: Kurt Suzuki gets a triple, his first of the year. Jack Cust gets his 183rd strike out of the year. Brett Anderson ends the year at 11-11. A's lose.

Series 49 A's at Angels

Game 1: A's win. They also have the best record in all of baseball in September. The A's also stall the Angels at 4 games out from clinching the division. Gio looked good, Weurtz looked good and Bailey got another save.
Game 2: Two run home run first inning from Kurt Suzuki! Thats about 89 so or RBI's for suzuki this year...A's get far behind and stage a crazy comeback, twice, and win.

Game 3: The A's are gonna let Edgar Gonzalez pitch again. That tells me they don't care if they win, or they just don't have any other choice. A's fall behind and start making a comeback but lose.

Series 48 Texas at Oakland

Game 1: The streak ends. A's lose. Matt Carson gets his first big league home run in the 9th with the A's trailing by 10 runs or so.

Game 2: A's win. Trevor Cahill gets his 10th win.

Game 3: A's lose 9-8.

Game 4: A's win. Brett Anderson gets his 11th win. A's have won 14 of their last 18 games.

Series 47 Indians at Oakland

Game 1: Kurt Suzuki homered and drove in three runs. He leads the team with 78 RBI's. Andrew Bailey got his 25th save.A's win their fourth game in a row and are over .500 in their last 70 games.

Game 2: A's win fifth game in a row. Seven of their last 10. A's are 11-5 in September. Tied with Boston for best record in AL for September. Rajai Davis has 40 stolen bases. Travis Buck Jon Meloan, and Henry Rodriguez were all called up from AAA Sacramento. Matt Carson, Eric Munson,Clay Mortensen, and Brad Kilby have all been called up recently.

Game 3: A's run out their 121st different line up this year. It's Gio time. It's his 24th birthday. He has one win in his last six starts. Mark Ellis home run in the first, he's now all time leader in home runs for the Oakland A's (77). The A's scored a bunch of runs. Twenty eight year old Matt Carson gets his first major league hit.Brad Kilby gets his first major league win as the A's go on to win their sixth in a row.

Game 4: The A's have the bases loaded five times in the second inning. The Indians defense = sucking bad. "It's baseball follies out there". Ken Korach. "This is a big league baseball team, not playing big league ball". Vince Controneo.

SWEEP!

A's have won seven straight, 12 of their last 14.

Series 46 A's vs. Rangers

Game 1: Brett Tomko cannot be stopped! A's win. Rangers struggling for a playoff spot.

The A's AAA Sacramento RiverCats are in the PCL Championship series again. They've won the last two years. Chris Carter, one of the top prospects in all of baseball, has been in AAA a very short time and has hit a home run in five straight games.

A's 2010 Schedule right here.We get ripped off in inter-league. A's are away for the Cubs and Cardinals we get the Pirates and Reds in Oakland. Oh Boy!

Game 2: Rajai gets a stolen base in the first inning. Rajai had another big night and the A's win 6-1.

The All-Time nine. Vote for the best single season hitting performances by the A's in franchise history.

Game 3: Rajai Davis!...Trevor Cahill (7 innings one hit) to Weurtz to Bailey. A's win 4-0. A's have won 8 of their last 10. 36-35 over the last 71 games. A's pitching gave up only one run in the three game series in Texas.

Eliminated

Yep, the A's were eliminated from the AL West race yesterday. I guess now our only hope is the wild card, or Obi Wan Kanobi.

Series 45 A's at Twins

Game 1: A's hit five home runs and win 12-5.
Game 2: A's steal five bases and win 4-2. Andrew Bailey gets the save and breaks the Oakland record for saves by a rookie. Pretty cool considering he skiped AAA, and at the begining of this season Brad Ziegler and Joey Devine were supposed to be sharing the closer role. I think the new record is 24. Still a couple weeks to get a few more. Nice job Andrew Bailey!

In case you missed it. Last December when Bailey was pitching in the Arizona Fall League he was writing a blog. I asked him about baseball cards. You can see the post here.

Game 3: The bad Gio showed up today. A's lose.

Series 44 A's at White Sox

Game 1: A's get 20 hits and win 11-3.

The A's magic number for being eliminated from the AL West race is 6.

Game 2: A's lost in the 13th inning. They had a lot of chances, left a lot of people on. Rajai Davis went 3-6 had two stolen bases and scored. He leads the majors in steals since the all star break with 23. He has 30+ steals this year. The first Oakland player to steal over 30 since Rickey in 1998. The A's have over 100 steals as a team. The most in ten years or something like that. I think they 5 five stolen bases and got caught a few times last night.

Series 43 Mariners at A's

Here's a couple photos from fridays game.



On sunday Andrew Bailey got the save. It was his 23 of the year and ties Huston Streets' Oakland rookie record for saves.

Andrew Bailey

Andrew Bailey = AL Rookie of the Month for August.

Series 42 Royals at Oakland

Game 1: There is some new guy in the radio booth or the A's. A's win 8-5.
Game 2: A's lose 4-3.

I'm headed to the game wednesday. Trevor Cahill takes the mound for Oakland.


Game 3 (wednesday): A's win 10-4. Landon Powell hit his first major league grand slam in the fifth inning.

Grand Salami

Series 41 A's at Angels

Game 1: Trevor Cahill opened up a can of whoop ass and the A's win.

Tommy Everidge got sent down and Eric Patterson got called up. Rotoworld say Patterson carries no fantasy value.

Game 2: It seems that most A's fans fully expected Brett Tomko to suck when he came to the A's. Turns out he's been solid in all three of his starts. He pitched 5+ innings and had given up only one run when he left the game. The A's were ahead 6-1 thanks to a five run third inning. So, after Tomko left the game the Angels scored 10 runs and the A's lost 11-7.

Game 3: A's were down 3-0 then they scored three runs in the seventh and another in the eighth. That's all they needed. Nice come from behind win against the hated Angels.

Game 3: Everything seemed to be going fine. The A's were ahead 1-0 for what seemed like quite a while. Next thing you know they end up losing 8-1 or so.

Angels

The Angels start a series in Oakland tomorrow so I guess it's a good time to post some photos from the last time they were in town. My friend Shawn got me tickets to the game on May 5th. Photos are here or at the link down on the right side where it says game photos.

Series 40 A's at Seattle

Game 1: A's lose. The only thing remotely interesting was that Vin Mazzaro hit a guy with a pitch. Both benches were warned. The next batter was Ken Griffey Jr. who then hit his 625th career home run.
Game 2: Good Game. 1-1 for a long time. A's go ahead 2-1. Then in the 8th the Mariners tie it up.Game goes to the tenth when ex-Athletic Ryan Langerhans hits a walk off home run. You remember Langerhans he played 2 games and had 4 at bats for the A's a few years ago. He got picked up while the A's were on the road and never even got to play in Oakland because he was traded away before they got back from the road trip. Brett Anderson also pitched well for the A's.
-The A's traded away Langerhans for Chris Snelling in 2007. At the same time in a different transaction the A's picked up Jack Cust.

Chris Carter was called up to AAA Sacramento today. August 26 2009. Batting .347 101 RBI's 22 HR's...39 Home runs last year. He's some power the A's could use.

Game 3: It's Gio time, and he gives up a two run home run in the first inning.Kurt Suzuki hit a home run. Jack Cust hit a home run and hit a second monster shot down the right field line, but it went over the foul pole and was ruled foul on the instant replay. Rajai Davis also dropped not one but two fly balls that went right in on out of his glove. The A's once again had the tying runs on base in the ninth inning, but could not get it done. A's lose. I think it was 5-3. Sweep.

Series 39 White Sox at Oakland

Game 1 (53-68) 20.5 GB: A's have the tying run at third in the bottom of the ninth and lose 3-2. They also left a bunch of runners on base again. Gio Gonzalez did have nine strike outs in 5 2/3 innings.


Justin Duchscherer has been diagnosed with clinical depression so he's not going to play this year. He hasn't played in 2009, but there was that Duchscherer bobblehead day earlier this year. His contract is up after 2009 so nobody thinks he's really gonna be back in the green and gold.


Bobby Crosby has been put on the DL. I think it's pretty safe to say he won't be back playing for Oakland next year. The A's call up Daric Barton for the second time this year. He better not suck 'cuz Tommy Everidge is ready to take his place permanent style.

Game 2: Trevor Cahill on the mound tonight. He hasn't got a win in a month so I would say he's due. It was 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth. The A's left 11 men on through the first eight innings. Top of the ninth Andrew Bailey was rock solid. In the bottom of the ninth Adam Kennedy got on, sacrafice from Rajai Davis and Kurt Suzuki knocked in Kennedy. A's win 3-2. Nice. No fluke that Bailey, Kennedy, Davis and Suzuki are the guys who came thru. They're the ones who usualy get the job done. Suzukis' sixth walk off hit of his short career.
Game 3: After not doing anything other than walk or strikeout looking for the last month, Jack Cust hit two home runs and the A's go on to win big.

Scott Patterson

The A's get Scott Patterson! He has a website. It seems he is very clever and funny, or maybe he's serious?

Series 38 Yankees at Oakland

Game 1 (53-65) 19 GB: No score after three innings, even though the Yankees had the bases loaded with one out in the top of the third. Bottom of the fourth Rajai Davis hits a double. He has a 12 game hitting streak going. Davis then steals third, his 25th of the year. Kurt Suzuki gets a single and Davis scores from third. Scott Hairston hits a single. Ryan Sweeney grounds out, Suzuki and Hairston advance. Then A.J. Burnett gets his spikes caught on the pitching rubber, that results in a balk and Suzuki score from third. Mark Ellis comes up gets a base hit and drives in Hairston. Ellis' 20th RBI of the month. 3-0 Oakland.
The A's go on to win 3-0. A's starter Brett Tomko, who the Yankees released in late July, Craig Breslow, Brad Ziegler and Andrew Bailey all work nicely to shutout the Yankees.

Cummingham sent down to create Tomko spot
Susan Slusser is the A's beat writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Today on the SFGate blog she wrote an article that points out how really lame the A's management is. Check it here. It makes me a bit sad to be an A's fan after reading this, but I think I'll be alright so don't worry about me.

Game 2: Vin Mazzaro(105 pitches in 5 innings) vs. C.C. Sabathia. Good back and forth game. Kurt Suzuki and Tommy Everidge both hit home runs. Tied 2-2 going to the sixth.
Well, the A's got out of a couple bases loaded jams, but the Yankees bat around in the top of the seventh it's 7-2. A's go on to lose 7-2.

Game 3: A's leave ten men on base and lose 3-2. A's are 53-67 now and just 21 games out of first place.

Mark Ellis

AP Photo of Mark Ellis after Walk Off Home Run Sunday

Mark Ellis is the American League Player of the Week. In six games last week, Mark led the A.L. with a .571 (12-21) batting average and 11 RBI while notching three doubles, a home run and 18 total bases. Ellis also posted a .857 slugging percentage and a .542 on-base percentage. Ellis went 5-for-5 with a season-high four RBI, leading the A's to a 9-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Sunday Ellis hit a two-out, walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth, giving the A's a 3-2 win over the Chicago White Sox with the third walk-off homer of his career. -Oakland A's .com

Series 37 White Sox at Oakland

AP Photo of Mark Ellis Walk Off

Game 1: The A's were down 6-0 early. I think they came back made it 6-6 then it was 7-7 and the A's lose in the 10th inning.
Game 2: Gio walked a bunch of guys, Adam Kennedy went 5-5 and the A's lose 8-1.
Game 3: It was turn back the clock to 1929 day. Old uniforms for both teams.Solid Pitching from Trevor Cahill and Jay Marshall. Tied 2-2 bottom of the ninth two outs. Walk off home run from Mark Ellis.

Series 36 A's at Baltimore

Game 1 (50-62) 17GB: Mark Ellis went 5 for 5. Gio Pitched well again. A's got 16 hits. A's win 9-1 or something like that.

The A's are second in runs scored (AL) since the All-Star break.

Game 2: A's lose.
Game 3: A's win 6-3. Again a nice team effort.

Series 35 A's at Royals

Game 1: A's win 9-4. Nice team effort from the A's. Cliff Pennington hit a couple doubles and a single and stole second.
Game 2: A's lose 12-6. Tommy Everidge hit his first major league home run.
Game 3: A's win 6-3. Two home runs from Bobby Crosby. Kurt Suzuki hit his ninth home run of the year. Anothe one of the A's (Ryan Sweeney) hit a home run too. Rookie Andrew Bailey gets his 16th save.

Russ Springer was claimed off of waivers by the Rays. Aaron Cunningham was called back up to the big team. Dallas Braden to the DL. Jeff Gray up. In between all that Clayton Mortensen was called up, made his first big league start, did great his first time though the line up then got rocked, then was sent back to AAA. Mortensen came to the A's in the Matt Holliday trade.

Jason Giambi Released

Jason Giambi has been on the DL, but was on the DL and was eligible to come back last tuesday. The A's never brought him back and now they have released him. He was batting .183 (last in baseball) with 11 home runs. His bobblehead day is August 21st...in case you missed the last A's bobblehead day earlier this year, it was Justin Duchscherer who's been on the DL for all of 2009.

Series 34 Rangers at Oakland

Some good things...Mark Ellis is second in the AL since the All-Star break with 14 runs scored. He's tied for the AL lead in Doubles with seven.
Adam Kennedy is third in the AL with a .394 average with runners in scoring position.
Rajai Davis batted .405 in July and is second in the AL since the All-Star break with 14 RBI's. I could list some impressive numbers for Orlando Cabrera too, but he's not on the A's anymore. I heard on the radio they were also the number one running team in the AL for the month of July. Not sure exactly what that means, but it's nice to be #1 in something.
Game 1 (44-60): A's are held scoreless with only one hit (in the first inning) till the eight where they got another hit. They were down 2-0 headed to the bottom of the ninth a couple guys got on, and with two out scored a run. Then with two on Rajai Davis in to pinch hit.With two strikes Davis hits a shot down the right field line. A's score two. Rajais' second walk off of the year!
-Rajais' hit was ruled a triple. When was the last time you saw a walk off triple?
Game 2: It's Gio time.
Three up three down for Gio, then Kurt Suzuki hits a home run in the bottom of the first 1-0 A's...Gio went on to have a nice game. All kinds of A's got hit's and nice plays were made in the outfield. Four bases were stolen by Oakland...what else? A's win 5-0 or so.
Game 3: Rowdy fun game tonight.
Rajai Davis led off with a single and then promptly stole second. That guys from the Rangers who likes to plunk batters then tried to pick him off. His throw ended up in the outfield. Rajai to third. Scott Hairston hits a home run, 2-0 A's.
Couple batters later, the pitcher from Texas, not liking the way things are going, hits Kurt Suzuki.
The Rangers scored in the second. 2-1 A's.
Chad Reineke who was called up from Sacramento for this game, got busy with retaliation time and hit Michael Young with a pitch. That was pretty satisfying for the A's I'm sure till the next batter hit a home run. 3-2 Rangers.
In the bottom of the third Rajai hits a lead off double. With the help of a wild pitch Rajai was a third. He scored of a sac fly. 3-3.
Suzuki comes up for the first time since being hit. See Ya! Home Run! 4-3 A's.
In the fourth Cliff Pennington hits his first major league home run. 5-3 A's.
The Rangers scored once in the fifth and once in the sixth. 5-5.
Adam Kennedy hit a 2 run homer in the bottom of the sixth. 7-5 A's.
Then the A's bullpen was super solid till the end, and the A's win the third in a row from Texas. Which must really hurt 'cuz they are chasing the Angels for first, but it's just not working out for them.

Series 33 Blue Jays at Oakland.

Game 1(43-58)18 GB: A's win 8-5. Nice team effort.

Game 2 (44-58)17.5 GB:Tonight The A's retire Rickey Hendersons' number 24. Trevor Cahill had another in a string of rough outings, but the A's make it close in the bottom of the ninth with the tying run on third, but lose.

-Rajai Davis, since the All-Star break is #2 in the AL in RBI's.
Game 3: Vin Mazzaro gets the start. The Blue Jays bat around in the first inning. 5-0 after the top of the first. Rajai Davis got a hit and now has a seven game hitting streak. Adam Kennedy got a hit and now has a nine game hitting streak. A's lose...about 10 minutes after the game started.

Orlando Cabrera

The A's traded away thier hottest player today at the trade deadline.He went to the Twins for Minor League shortstop Tyler Ladendorf. The A's are bringing up Cliff Pennington to play shortstop because they already know how Bobby Crosby does. Ladendorf was a second round pick by the Twins in the 2008 draft. Cabrera has had 41 hits in July and is batting .381 since the All-Star break.

-Above is a card I made and sent to the A's spring training after he was signed. Cabrera was nice enough to sign it and a 2008 Upper Deck card that I didn't send. Two for one. Thanks!

Series 32 A's at Red Sox

Game 1(monday): Red Sox break out of thier run scoring slump. A's lose.
-Tommy Everidge gets called up as Daric Barton goes on the DL. Everidge makes his big league debut tonight (tuesday) at first base.
-When Matt Holliday got traded a few days ago it made a hole in the outfield. So they called up from AAA Sacramento infielder Eric Patterson, because the A's hate Travis Buck.
Game 2(tuesday): A's score two runs in the 2nd, but the Red Sox score five in the third Vin Mazzaro wasn't gettin' the calls and Bob Geren gets thrown out. The game gets to the ninth inning with the A's down 7-4 and in his fourth at bat Tommy Everidge gets his first major league hit and it just happens to be a RBI double off of Jonathan Papplebon. The A's score two more off of and tie the game at 7-7. The game goes extra innings and the A's win in the 11th. Maybe the most satisfying win of the year. I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere about kicking Geren out of the rest of the games too, or something like that.
-A's had 21 hits in the game.
Game 3 (Game 100): First pitch of the game = home run for Adam Kennedy. Second pitch of the game single for Orlando Cabrera who now has 40 hits in the month of July a Oakland record. Third pitch of the game single for Kurt Suzuki. A's load the bases twice in the first inning off of Brad Penny. Rajai Davis hits a 3 run double. 5-0 A's top of the first. Red Sox come back and score 3 in the bottom of the first. A's go on to win 8-5 or something like that.
Game 4 (day game): It's Gio time. Rajai Davis has turned into some kinda superman lately. He's gettin' it done on offense and defense. A's lose.

Rajai Davis

I was looking a some photos I took at the game last wednesday and noticed that Rajais' got little A's on his stirrups. Turns out the ladies at Oakland A's Days also noticed. They were diggin' 'em. Turns out the folks at Uni-Watch also noticed them and were not diggin' 'em quite as much...This is what you talk about when your team is 15 games out of first.

Matt Holliday

They say on the internet Matt Holliday is getting traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for a third base guy something Wallace and a outfirlder and a pitcher. They are all prospects. Who now in hindsight were traded for Carlos Gonzalez, Huston Street and Greg Smith. I guess we'll all have to wait and see how this one turns out.
-Brett Wallace 3rd
-Shane Peterson OF
-Clayton Mortensen P

Seriers 31 A's at Yankees

Game 1: This was a make up game for one that was rained out April 20. It would have been the first night game played in the new Yankee Stadium. Tonights game 3 months later was also almost rained out. The game started a couple hours late. That's the most interesting stuff about tonights game. A's go in to lose 6-3 or so.
Game 2: last I heard it was 5-1 Yankees. I have to assume the A's lost.
Game 3: Gio Gonzalez had a real strong start and the A's go on to win, breaking the Yankees eight game winnings streak.
Game 4: The score went back and forth a couple times, but the A's go on to lose 7-5.

Series 30 Twins at Oakland

Game 1: I turned on the radio about an hour after the game started. There was all kinds of static, but I thought I heard Vince Controneo saying the score was 10-5. I thought that must really be wrong because how could the A's score five runs? In the first 4 or so innings no less. Then thru the haze and crackle of the radio I heard them talking about Gio Gonzalez. Then I heard what sounded like, home run in the first, grand slam in the second, home run in the fourth...long story short it's 13-7 Twins in the seventh. How much longer will Gio be around? How many more chances is he gonna get? How old is he? It was 12-2 headed to the bottom of the third. Daric Barton is playing first...Oh, I just heard Giambi is on the DL. In the bottom of the seventh 13-9, A's have the bases loaded one out and Matt Holliday comes up. GRAND SLAM! You have got to be kidding me! The was the 19th hit for the A's tonight. Jack Cust comes up next and you know it, home run! A's lead 14-13. Game ends on a wild pitch Suzuki coldn't find the ball and dude breaks for home, Suzki finds the ball throws it to Wuertz covering home. The dude is out. A's win.
A's had 22 hits and not one strikeout. One of the A's biggest comebacks ever.
Game 2: I turned the computer on to find out who won, and it was tied 2-2 in the bottom of the ninth. Thanks to Matt Holliday, extra innings. For the first time in about two years I'm watching the game on the "Gameday" computer thing. It's more hi tech than last time I watched. A's lose 3-2 in the tenth.
-Jack Hannahan hit not one, but two home runs tonight for his new team the Mariners. They still lost 9-7 to the Tigers.
-We are headed to the game tomorrow (Wednesday).
Game 3 (39-53)15GB: The A's are 1-4 in games we've attended this year, but 1-0 since Sadie got her new A's hat. Trevor Cahill against some guy. Day game (12:35).

A's win 16-1.

Series 30 Angels at Oakland

Game 1: I didn't even know the All-Star break was over. Either did the A's. Angels win 6-1 or so.
Did you know Jack Hannahan got traded away like a week ago for some minor leaguer? It's true. The A's got right handed AA pitcher Justin Souza from the Mariners. Souza was drafted in the ninth round of the 2006 draft by the Mariners.
Game 2: A's lose 11-6.
Game 3: Brett Anderson pitches a perfect game thru 8 or so innings and leaves the game tied 0-0. A's go on to lose in the 10th.

Series 29 A's at Rays

Game 1: A's lose 6-0. Another no name nobody gets a complete game shutout against the A's.
Game 2: A's win.
Game 3: A's win. Both the last two games, A's get busy late and win.

Series 28 A's at Boston

Game 1: Brett Anderson is the first Oakland pitcher to pitch a complete game in about 161 games. A's win 6-0.
Game 2: A's lose, I think 6-2 or something like that. I missed the last couple game and while listening on the radio in the first inning, with the A's up some guy named Hairston hit a home run.
Game 3: Like the A's have had a habit of doing this year they made a charge late in the game after looking lifeless for most of it. They fell short like they always do and the final score makes it look like it was closer than it really was. 5-4 Boston. Also David Ortiz who has sucked bad this year looked like the superstar hero he used to be. Playing against the A's.

Andrew Bailey

Andrew Bailey rookie closer = All-Star.
Kurt Suzuki = A few days off.

Series 27 A's at Indians

Game 1 (33-44): A's are down 13-3 in the 5th inning. I think they are gonna lose - Yes, the A's did go on to lose 15-3. Interesting that the Indians had lost five straight games before running into the A's tonight. Even more interesting is that the Indians scored 13 runs in those five games combined!
Game 2 (33-45): It's Vin Mazzaro tonight. A's lose 5-something, and as usual thanks for nothing Matt Holliday.
Game 3 (33-46): A's win.

Series 26 Tigers at Oakland

Game 1 Monday night (31-43): Before the game Jack Hannahan goes back to AAA to make room for Travis Buck coming up from AAA. Will Hannahan ever be back?
Mark Ellis and Ryan Sweeney both hit home runs. A's leading 7-1 in the 8th. A's pitching real solid tonight. Offense isn't so bad either, hey were only about 10 games out of first. If the A's go on a nice streak and everybody else in the division loses a bunch Oakland could be right back in it by the All-Star break. A's go on to win 7-1. Ryan Sweeney has three hits for the second night in the row. A's pitching gets 14 K's after getting 13 yesterday.
Game 2 Tuesday night (32-43): It's Gio time...and after the top of the 1st Gio is not looking too convincing. 2-0 Tigers. Good News though Detroits' starter Galaraga looks even worse. A's load the bases without getting a hit, but can't score. In the second Jack Cust made a silly little league play in the outfield. The kind we're getting used to from Cust. If Gio can settle down the A's should take care of this one...well, after three innings Detroit has six hits and A's have none. Orlando Cabreras' 12 game hitting streak is on the line.
Forth inning Ryan Sweeney triples, Nomar Walks, Jack Cust RBI single. 3-1 Detroit after four.
Matt Holliday could have tied it up in the 7th, or cold have at least got a hit or done something but he didn't. Edardo whoever Gonzaleaz gave up a run in the top of the ninth. Then the A's made a run for it in the bottom of the ninth but fell short again. A's lose 5-3. Cabrera has a 12 game hitting streak going. A's had chances and failed. Mark Ellis hit a home run the second day in a row.
Game 3 Wednesday (32-44): We're headed to this game, gonna watch the A's beat up on Justin Verlander.
Here's Sadie sportin' her new A's hat at the game today. (The only hat she will let stay on her head).

The A's were down 1-0 in the first inning and I was afraid it was gonna be more of the same. In the 4th Ryan Sweeney was on when, with two outs Jack Cust jacked one into the left field bleachers. 2-1 A's. In the sixth inning with Matt Holliday on second Jason Giambi jacked one out himself, to right center. I was afraid what the A's would do with a lead because I can't remember the last time they had one. Dallas Braden had a real nice day, but I noticed the last 4 or 5 outs were some warning track shots. Brad Ziegler to the rescue in the eighth and Andrew Bailey to close it out. A's win 5-1. The first time in five trips to the ballpark that I've seen the A's win this year. This was Sadies' fourth game and the first time she saw them win. She was gettin' pretty rowdy the second half of the game. I think Giambi and Cust were feeding off of her energy.(Orlando Cabrera got a hit in the first inning and in the second to extend his hitting streak to 13 games or so).

Series 25 Rockies at Oakland

Game 1 Friday Fireworks Night: The signal on the radio started to fade around the sixth inning and the A's were down by three or four runs so I knew it was a waste of time to go in and watch the end of the game on TV. A's go on to lose 4-2.
"And well-deserved boos cascading down on the field from the fans."-A's radio announcer Ken Korach.
Game 2 Saturday night: Trevor Cahill get the start for the A's...and just minutes into the game 2-0 Rockies. I blinked in the top of the second and it's 3-0 Rockies. Top of the third 5-0 Rockies, I'm beginning to see a pattern here. Bottom of the third Rajai Davis gets on. Adam Kennedy gets on and then steals second to set up Kurt Suzukis' two run single. 5-2 Rockies.
Top of the 4th 7-2 Rockies, I'm beginning to see a pattern here.
I hope Trevor Cahill is not on yor fantasy team.
3.2 IN, 8H, 7ER, 1B, 2K, 4HR
11-2 Rockies top of the sixth.
I stopped watching for a while and turned on the radio in the eighth and the A's made a mad run at them Rockies but it was too little too late. Rockies win 11-9.
Game 3 Sunday (31-42): Mark Ellis is back from the DL. He's playing second and they have Adam Kennedy at third. Daric Barton goes back to AAA Sacramento and Josh Outman goes on the DL.
If Ellis could put up some respectable offensive numbers Kennedy at third just might work.
Uneventful, unexcieting, boring game. A's lose 3-1 and thanks for nothing again Matt Holliday.

Aaron Cunningham

Aaron Cunningham was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the sixth round of the 2005 Draft. He was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks in June 2007. In December 2007 he was part of the trade with the A's that sent Dan Haren to the Diamondbacks. He got called up on August 30 2008. He played in 22 games, batted .250 hit a home run and stole a couple bases. I sent him this card sometime around then.

I didn't get it back though till after I sent a recieved back this card that I sent to spring training this year.

I guess he saved his mail from last year and sent it out in the spring. A week or so later I got this one.

I mistakenly sent him a second card to spring training, and he was nice enough to sign it. I like how the 2008 card was personalized to me. The first one back in 2009 was not. Then the third card seems to merge his name with mine. How much more personalized can you get?
Well, Cunningham didn't make the team out of spring, but the A's called him up last month. Since then he played in 16 games and is hitting .152 with 6 RBI's ans one home run.

Tastelikedirt Not On Twitter

Not gonna happen, thanks anyway.

Series 24 Giants at Oakland

Game 1 Monday night: Trevor Cahill went seven strong innings. Jack Cust stole a base. Orlando Cabrera hit a couple doubles. Bobby Crosby had a couple RBI's. Brad Ziegler 1-2-3 eighth inning. Rajai Davis stole a base early then in the eighth he hit a triple. Crosby knocked him in. Matt Holliday didn't do anything again. A's win 5-1 anyway.
Game 2 Tuesday night: Lincecum vs. Mazzaro. A's are wearing thier black tops. Those young pitchers love those black tops. A's went down 4-0 early. Jason Giambi hit a solo home run. It's 4-1 in the fifth. In the fifth and sixth inning the A's loaded the bases against Lincecum with one out. Hit into doubles plays both times. Lincecum is fun to watch pitch when he pitches against teams who are not called the Oakland A's. Lincecm pitches his second complete game against the A's this year. A's lose and thanks for nothing Matt Holliday.
Game 3 Wednesday night: Randy Johnson vs. Gio Gonzalez. It was 1-0 A's when I started eating dinner. It was 2-1 Giants when I finished dinner and by the time I doing the dishes it was 6-1 Giants. I better get desert quick before things get any worse.

Series 23 A's at San Diego

Game 1 Friday night: I listened to this while driving up and down the state of California. The radio was fading in and out. I kept hear the announcers calling Tony Gwynns name, I thought I had entered some time vortex thing. When the A's finally won I knew that I must have gone thru some kind of time warp.
Game 2 Saturday night: It was 3-3 around the middle of the game then the A's made it 4-3. Uncomfortable, then sometime arond the 7th Rajai Davis tried to end it early for a bunch of A's when he struck out and sent his bat sailing into the A's dugout. Lots of players and coaches went scrambling. Next up Adam Kennedy. Home run. Next up Jack Cust. Monster home run. Brad Ziegler got to pitch without giving up any runs then Andrew Bailey to close it out A's win 6-3. That's just how things are supposed to work. I guess it does work that way when you play the bad teams.(The Padres had the same record as the A's starting tonight(29-37).
Game 3 Sunday: The game got to the bottom of the 8th the A's were behind 2-1. Cabrerra, Cust and Holliday were coming up for the A's in the bottom of the ninth. Before I could even think about the A's having a chance to win this, Russ Springer gave up a two run home run. 4-1 Padres. Forget about it. Padres win.

Series 22 A's at Dodgers

Game 1: With Dallas Braden pitching a perfect game into the 5th inning, bt the score tied 0-0 I was worried. Then the A's went down 2-0. Then BOOM! my faith in the A's is renewed when Jason Giambi hit a 3 run home run in the 8th. Next at bat Bobby Crosby hit a home run too. My faith in the A's is back with a vengence...the A's go on to lose 5-4 in the bottom of the 10th.
A's are 9 and half games out of first place.
Game 2: Rajai Davis hits a home run, so does Jack Cust. Trevor Cahill is the first A's pitcher to get a hit this year. The A's do a little bit of this and a little bit of that to lead 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth. The A's manage to hang on and squeek out a week 5-4.
Game 3: Chris Denorfia was sent back to AAA to make room for Ryan Sweeney coming back off the DL. I just heard Rick Monday is the reason why the A's wear white shoes, or was at least the first to wear the white shoes or something like that. Who cares? A's get a 8-2-6 put out as the Dodgers score in the fifth, 2-1 Dodgers. Run Rajai Run! It's tied 2-2. Brad Ziegler comes into the game in the 7th and gets it done just like last night. Welcome back Ziggy. (Well, that's what I would have written if he had got the job done. Instead, Ziggy gives the go ahead run to the Dodgers and that Breslow guy comes in). There's a gas station in the parking lot a Dodger Stadium. A's go on to lose 3-2.

Series 21 A's at San Francisco

Game 1: Lincecum = A's lose.
Game 2: Randy Johnson gets Win #301.
Game 3: Matt Cain + Giants inside the park home run = A's swept.