Are the A’s the championship contender they appeared to be in the first half, or are they the .500 team they’ve been since the All-Star Break? Tonight’s a good test, as the A’s need a win to take the series from the Astros. They have their #5/6 starter going in Drew Pomeranz, but he’s opposed by Brad Peacock, whose 4.6 BB/9 marks him as exactly the kind of pitcher the A’s should pound the bejabbers out of. Quit fucking around, win this one and fly to Southern California with a little momentum.
Crisp DH, Fuld 8, Donaldson 5, Vogt 3, Moss 7, Norris 2, Reddick 9, Callaspo 4, Sogard 6.
Marlins (Henderson Alvarez) @ Angels (Hector Santiago), 7:05 p.m.
Why is “to be fucked” a bad thing?
the angels are playing the who is going to pitch sunday thing well. i am on pins annd needles.
Is it going to be roger Clemens coming out of retirement? is it Cahill?
It’s going to be Arte Moreno.
Fosse: Do you want to deal with my questions on the pregame show?
Gomes: No.
Fosse: How about if I call you “one of the all-time greats”?
Gomes: Aw, shit, OK.
Fosse: “I’m happy to be joined by one of the all-time greats, Jonny Gomes!”
Astros have the 3rd highest wRC+ in the league against lefties so I’m not sure about the wisdom of Pomeranz starting here. He should however, start against the Mariners when the 5th spot comes up again, but it looks like Hammel is getting that start.
Also really don’t like sending down Frieman especially with the already weak state of the right handed hitting lineup. Parrino would be a better choice.
Who would be your emergency middle infielder?
Deal with it for one day (Vogt to 2B!) then send down Pomeranz and activate Punto or Lowrie sans rehab or call up Ladendorf who hits lefties very well.
I’d deal with it for two days and “send” Gray to Beloit on Saturday morning.
see, i woulda thought you’d say kevin tighe.
donaldson.
And your third baseman would be?
bar
uh
cesped
uh
prolly vogt?
Thanks, and go As.
moss
CespedesOr just dfa fking Callaspo
Number 5/6ths starter? What, is a fourteen-year-old counting?
Bah
Bases loaded sad face
I said, “Quit fucking around”. Dammit.
Maybe there will be so many opportunities that the first inning LOBs will be long forgotten later and we’ll say “yeah they scored 11, but they shoulda scored 14.”
Early yet. Still, :(
no question. This is a minimum of a 4 inning game for houston’s bullpen
You called it.
I believe stephan vogt needs to be fine in kangaroo court
Norris is getting all of Cespedes’s at bats against righties. It hasn’t gone well.
i heard some mention of Adam Dunn the other day. That wouldn’t be terrible.
Thanks, and go As.
That might be kinda fun, actually.
Reddick should be moved up (despite his famous unclutchness) and Norris and Fuld down.
(Comment not just based on 1st inning results.)
Yep. Definitely wish Fuld wasn’t #2 today.
retrospect man says: you’ll poke an eye out kid!
In my defense, I don’t have a FKing computer by the TV right now.
Let’s go, Punchy.
This is not the motion Pomeranz used when he was successful in May-June.
yeah. it’s really weird.
Thanks, and go As.
its…funny lookin
More than most people, even.
seriously, Carter’s face is like a round chubby version of Snoop
Thanks, and go As.
he looks down to the coach for signs. With 2 strikes! So adorable
did you see the picture of him back at the Coliseum when Kara saw him? It was hilarious, she was so obviously in awe of him.
I wish she’d look at me like that :kicksrocks:
Thanks, and go As.
You can always pretend he’s looking at you like this:
Snoop ain’t looking down at no coach for no signs.
Nice, Josh.
Nice, Josh.
A good definition of “pro forma” is Chris Carter checking the 3B coach for signs.
“did they tell me what bunt was?”
Having written a gazillion pro-forma insurance policies, I think you wanted “perfunctory” there.
dammit. Gotta go to back to school night.
Tiny chairs ahoy.
Callaspo continues to amaze me with his slowness
Everyone hear about how they’re renaming Petco Park’s HOF plaza after Bud Selig?
Kinda silly / idiotic.
Awww… I hope he strikes out a bunch of guys tonight!
Shitty ex A with the first hit
The Price-line tonight – 2 IP, 12H, 8ER
He ran into a little trouble in the third:
Nine straight hits, that’s crazy. Gotta wonder if he was tipping pitches or something.
The Tigers seem jinxed this year. I’m not sad about it.
The A’s seem jinx this year. I’m sad about it.
Meanwhile Smyly pitched 7 innings of 2-hit ball for TB.
Add another to the list of Evil ExAs.
whew
When I see Reddick now all I can see is Riggins. Goddammit AV.
So no one is going to score ever in this game, I think you’re saying here.
I was promised A’s runs damn it. I want them. I want them NOW.
So do we send Pom Pom for a 4-night, all expenses paid vacation in Beloit, Wisconsin tonight so that he can start for us on Labor Day, or what?
Stop. Hammel Time.
Ma Ma Ma Mariners hit him so hard. Makes me say “Oh my God.”
Beloit has their last game that day, so he couldn’t be called back until Tuesday.
I’ve been wondering (theoretically, not that the A’s would do this) if you could call up an injured minor leaguer and then put him on the major league DL in order to create a loophole to bring another player back early.
Unreal.
Holy Fucking Shit Callapso is fucking slow.
He had a great jump too!
The closed captioning said that Callapso would be “running in a ditch”. I thought that was actually better than what was actually said.
It’s August and Gags still has no fking clue about his baserunners.
Yeah, that was unforgivable. Of the many poor 3B decisions that has to be the worst this year.
Korach’s description: “Callaspo’s around second, Fowler plays it in, Callaspo’s around third.” If the ball is already being thrown into the infield before you reach third base, you’re not gonna fuckin score.
FKin slowass Callaspo.
FKin oblivious-to-how-slowass-Callaspo-is Gallego.
wasn’t watching intently. it was gallego, right?
Yes, but a baserunner not scoring on a gapper when he was going on full count/2 outs is just unreal.
Someone needs to tell Gags to just pretend that every baserunner (not including Coco, Fuld, Sogard, or Reddick) is actually Cecil Fielder. Slow, bulky, and 50 years old.
I was listening to the radio, not watching on TV, and I could literally see in my mind’s eye that Callaspo was going to be out four or five seconds before he was called out, because Korach is a master at telling you what’s going on as it’s happening, and because Callaspo is fucking slow as shit.
Callaspo is so slow that the slow-mo replay actually showed him running back to third.
hey-o!
LOL
he’s so slow i just got this.
This is SO true. You KNOW when it’s going over the wall, or the ball will be caught, or the guy will be out at the plate because he uses his voice as a refined instrument to transmit the most subtle nuances that inform the words of description with the overarching truth of what he’s describing as he sees it.
With Vince, you don’t know WTF happened til you watch a replay on MLB At Bat. Even after he tells you.
When Roxy was on with him, he had the courtesy of explaining to us what actually happened after Vince’s calls. And he literally did for EVERY call.
Had to run to the store just now. When I left the car Cook had just got the K and Singleton was coming up. I came back and appearantly Coco had homered.
For the entire ride home, wich included going into and coming out of a pitching change, I wanted to know one piece of info-the score. I knew we had retaken the lead, but Vince at no point bothered to actually say what the lead was. I guess if I had really been thinking about it I could have reconstructed the lineups and figured out at least in general what the score probably was, but seemsto me it’s pretty friggin basic to say “the A’s lead 2-1”.
This. He’s so good at both using an economy of words to convey action happening in multiple places at once, and in using his voice to convey nuance that he doesn’t have time to convey with additional words.
No Vince, you don’t have to send the runner with two outs in that situation.
Calling Callaspo a runner is generous. He’s more like one of those race walkers.
Maybe the pitchers should just have a fistfight.
gotta give them hockey sticks if you wanna see boxing.
There is a run expectancy of ~0.6 with runners at 2b and 3b and 2 outs. There is a run expectancy of 0.0 sending Callaspo there.
There is a run expectancy of 0.1 in any situation involving Callaspo on offense.
Mossome!
A Moss XBH!
Wait, what’s that big rectangular hole in the RF wall?
OK Brawny, we’re counting on ya.
Reddick or Gentry?
Or Gomes?
Hm, that would be good.
As long as Gentry comes in for defense in the bottom after we take the lead.
I still think I would prefer Gentry anyway. Harder to double up.
It’s cool though.
Should be Gentry.
Peacock is terrible…but when Bo needs 3-2/3 innings from his bullpen, that’s even worse.
Bases loaded one out, bring in the guy with ~1 BB/inning. Nice.
I think that was ball 4
Might have been. I would have liked to find out.
My hate for Callaspo is reaching Emil Brown status. He can’t hit, he can’t field, he certainly can’t run. He can….make contact.
Only when you dont really need/want him to.
I half heartedly suggested a few weeks ago that he was worse than Punto. Now I think he’s worse than Barton.
Woo
Why in the shit is Gentry not replacing Gomes here?
OK, playing “Say Something I’m Giving Up On You” when the visitors change pitchers is pretty funny.
Good, strike throwing Cook please
Crap.
I guess it’s time to make hotel reservations for those mid-October trips.
Fuck.
Reverse no-hitter jinx, I suppose.
Damn, Sogard is weak, that swing from anyone else and it’s a homer.
Coco, e.g.
COCO!!!
Glen didn’t even TBIG that one he was so excited.
He went with his second favorite thing: Talking about the Crawford Boxes.
What the fuck is it with announcers needing to tell you about the fucking Crawford Boxes? I get it, announcers. There are Crawford Boxes, whatever the fuck those are. I don’t give a shit. I don’t even give a shit about the Green Monster; I definitely don’t give a shit about a Crawford Box.
Oh, I can tell you’re gonna be pumped when they mention Tal’s Hill.
ik,r?
There is a totally wrong joke about a Crawford Box and the old Prince song Cindy C.
#butthatsnoneofmybusiness
butt hat sn one of my…? i don’t get it.
Get out of my head.
Butt hats?
I want a butt hat!!!
Implausible but true: “Butt Hats” is not a Weird Al album.
nobody says “right into the BBQ terrace.”
Coco not weak!
Very good to see Coco hit balls hard right handed.
Sad that no one is telling Singleton he looks like a slob with his shirt unbuttoned like that.
I’ve seen enough of Cook for tonight.
Seriously. Lucky K and now take him out. Please?
Although all we have left is Abad (now pitching), Chavez (sucked recently), Gregerson (sucked yesterday), and EOF.
Bloop… ugh.
Definitely no chance for Reddick to get it, Ray.
This game is seriously annoying.
All Astros hits this inning off two strike fastballs.
6 straight fastballs to Altuve even after getting ahead 0-2. Norris is just bad.
i feel like the a’s give up only 2 strike hits
And Straily hasn’t pitched for us in months!
Meanwhile Norris pops up a 3-0 pitch.
green light doesn’t mean you MUST swing derek
Fuck you Ray. *I* don’t want to fucking see that shit either. Why does CSN think we want to see replays of our team getting hurt all the fucking time?
Fuck Callaspo.
jesuschrist, what a shitshow.
Fuck you, A’s. You’re supposed to be better than this shit. Except you Callaspo. You just suck ass.
Angels are up 3-1.
Crooked number right here.
Let’s go Oakland!
you got your jib scissors sharp, which is nice.
I’ve been trying to stay optimistic for a while now. But it has been really damn easy to be pessimistic about this team recently.
It has. And the most bothersome part is that every time we seem to be turning it back on it immediately sputters out. 2 big wins this weekend and now 4 games of meh since.
And you can’t keep losing 2 of 3 to the Astros and claim you are all in.
Yup.
As long as they turn it on against the good teams and sputter against the shittier ones, it’ll work out alright.
FK this team
Yup.
the pop up highlights on mlb .tv are pujols rbi ground out and hamilton rbi double.
no thanks
why can’t we get singles?
Have you tried Match.com?
this is where I would be a terrible manager.
After the walk, I would just leave. Bob Melvin goes through the signs
Painful watching this. Painful.
How the fuck has this team remained so close to first place? This is just fucking pitiful.
You gotta be fking kidding me. They’re IBBing Marisnick?!
37 A’s runs please.
Oh, Gomes Callaspo Sogard. Never mind.
Had to settle for 3.
Thank goodness. Now add on, please.
Way to go, [J]onny!
Remember feeling that even if the A’s were down in the late innings, they’d come up with a big rally to win it.
Yeah, me neither.
(Also – yay bloop hit)
uh, make that yay bloop hits
Why yes, yes I do.
I don’t always do the Eyeore thing, but when I do, WOW.
Well and in the right thread; they knew you were serious.
It was deserved. They’d played like shit tonight. Especially Norris. Holy shit.
even the fellas in the handshake line didn’t look happy
Should be safe or inconclusive
Looks like a tie.
Indeed!
Confirmed to me.
Sogey!
Cool. Moar pleaze.
FULDY!!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
FULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLD!!!!
THE LEGEND CONTINUES
UPDATE THE WIKIPEDIA PAGE
Bahahahahaahahahaaha
I’m glad I deleted all that before hitting Post Comment.
Can we still get the cliff notes of the comment?
The Cliff’s Notes are: Glorious Mundy’s recommendation of the Deschutes Fresh Squeezed was right on, and the 6-pack was just what I needed to accompany this game.
I was drinking that a bit at the Rio Nido roadhouse last week, but it’s on the maltier end of the malt/hop spectrum than the “fresh squeezed” moniker might suggest.
I wouldn’t mind having Pomeranz in the pen come the playoffs. Maybe even over Chavez if it comes to that.
This was a weird reply fail, wasn’t it.
It really was.
Good stuff. Let’s get this done.
TLoSF!!!
I don’t mean to quibble, but shouldn’t that A’s fan in RF have been a little more excited than that?
He wasn’t following our game thread, so he was confident.
did the astros just bring in general custer?
That last name is taxing my mind.
Huh.
whatevs. standard parent maneuver. “sorry kid, cant play. elbow hurts, get me my medicine, its in the fridge, top shelf. get the opener too.”
A Moss home run would be nice here.
A DiNo GS would be awesome.
This has been an outstanding top of the inning, but the A’s need more.
Oh, well.
The heroes – as of now – are Gomes (batting against a righty), Sogard and Fuld.
Fawltytowers?
No jury would convict Bo Porter.
“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, as you know, Texas is a Go Back to Shortstop state. As we have proven conclusively, the alleged victim did not go back to shortstop, leaving my client well within his rights to take the action he took.”
Stand your ground!
Top of the order coming up…
If Melvin was tempted to mix and match, it would be here. But it’s not happening, so we’ll see.
No one acknowledged my call of the crooked number, even though I was an inning early. I am sad :(
I was fully expecting to acknowledge, support, and, if necessary, defend your end of game chicken little sky is falling this team is garbage rant.
Maybe I should write one anyway? Support is so rare and my need for positive reinforcement and laudatory attention so deep, it might give me a measure of momentary solace in a life fraught with self-doubt and paralyzing fear of rejection.
I’d properly still do all those things. Hopefully it’ll be just a fleeting pass and walk all over the Angels this weekend.
Double Play, whoot!
Sorry Bo, you don’t have a challenge. Sit down.
Technically that’s in the umps hands. After the 7th.
BETTER DP TURNER THAN YOU THINK!
Huge DP (assuming it stands)
And if the call is upheld, Carter isn’t a problem.
It wasn’t as close as I thought.
Thank God.
Sogey playing 2nd! They don’t turn it if the other guy is playing there.
FOR CHRIST’S SAKE STOP PITCHING TO TROGDOR!!!!!!
andeux says FUCC
CC says FUBB
That double play is looking kind of important now.
The A’s still need the third out. This game has been unpleasant.
And your last hero is Parrino.
THE MAGICIAN FTW!!!
I CANT STOP SHOUTING!!!
Good lord, I don’t think I can take another month of this.
I’ll take it.
Mediocre victory, bitches.
Yup. If that. Ugh.
I don’t like it when you agree with me.
You’re wrong.
I’ve been trying to stay pessimistic for a while now. But it has been really damn easy to be optimistic about this team recently.
Holy hell, Andy.
Hey, win! :)
Dever in noubt
I did not expect to be this relieved at barely taking a series from the Astros.
I’m glad they won, ’cause y’all would have been unbearable if they hadn’t, I’ll tell ya what.
Indeed.
@Thunderbutt What are you talking about? I’m a fucking joy to be around.
Realest post of the thread right here.
Truly, it’s the Iggy Azalea of the thread.
Well, I would have been. Everyone else leaves after the game is over, barring unusual circumstances.
you are always bearable.
I’ll just be unbearable anyway.
Try some warm prune juice with butter.
Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good. And for awhile we have been saying the breaks weren’t going our way. So take it and move on to the OC.
Let’s see.
The A’s seem like they can’t score against anyone, unless it’s the 9th inning.
The bullpen was crap, except when Otero loaded the bases with one out.
O’Flaherty has a 9.00 ERA as a closer.
A win is a win.
We aren’t anyway?
Admit it: You all love Sam Fuld now.
He got me jumping around my kitchen for a second or two.
he showed me up the other day and i haven’t said a peep since.
Pretty sure Vogt or Moss or Jaso or really anyone with a glove could play 2B better than Callaspo.
I’ll just head on out to Los Angeles and meet up with the team in Anaheim then.
The A’s were winning when I left and I came home and they’d won. I assume it was uneventful in between, punctuated by all you FKers’ unwavering optimism. Excellent, businesslike victory. Two wins each series the rest of the way should get it done. Though sweeping four in Anaheim will be OK too.
Jib-tatic all round.
Crisp’s HR last night: may or may not have cleared the fence at the Coliseum.
Fuld’s HR last night: may or may not have cleared the fence at the Coliseum.
Carter’s HR last night: would not have cleared the fence at the Coliseum. In fact, it was almost the exact same spot as one of his others in the series.
Crazy ballpark.
Needed that series win, though.
Scribbles is back.
Pomegranate joining Nate?
Yeah, and I hope that those two wealthy young men don’t get led astray by the seductive blandishments that Beloit has to offer.
It is credited with founding the snack food industry, who knows WHAT could happen?
It looks like 3 of the games up until Tuesday will be started by lefties. So hopefully Parrino, Callaspo, and whichever additional lefty starts instead of Freiman won’t hamper the team.
I am happy with moss at first against the lefties. Reddick is not making me angry
If it’s August Moss, then I don’t want him in the batter’s box ever.