The Red Sox pitching staff staggers into Oakland having given up 34 runs on 42 hits, including 11 home runs, and 19 walks in their four-game series in Seattle. I haven’t read any of the Boston media but I bet there’s some concern/worry/panic. Let’s hope the A’s can add to it.
Monday night: Brooks vs. Price
Tuesday night: Fiers vs. Sale
Wednesday night: Estrada vs. Eovaldi
Thursday afternoon: Anderson vs. Rodriguez. I’m assuming Brett though the advance schedule shows TBD right now. I suppose that’s a dangerous assumption.
Rain looks like it could be a factor especially tonight (green blob a couple hours offshore on radar) and Thursday afternoon. It’s a bit of a jolt that the A’s will have completed just about 1/8 of their home schedule by Thursday, April 4.
it’s only been 4 games!
Aaron, you are not up for this.
Change my mind
ok
Man, the A’s lose a lot of attendance by having the Red Sox in for a midweek series at the beginning of April vs. a weekend series later on.
I was truly shocked at how small the crowd was last night. I’d have thought the Sawx fans would show up in droves for a chance to see their team, especially after winning last year. And those that were there were decidedly subdued, they made a bit of noise here and there but not that annoying. I guess a few championships since 2004 and even they have become blasé about their team.
It’s not just the Red Sox fans who didn’t show up. The home team is coming off a 97-win season itself. I don’t think you can directly blame “chance of rain”; there should have been more advance sales for a game like that. Plus I thought the “A’s Access” plan was supposed to get more bodies in the stadium even when the “member” doesn’t have a ticket for that specific game.
Two comments:
1. April 1 is early, people aren’t into baseball yet and there’s an anticipation of lousy cold weather for night games. I know the season has been starting the first week of April for a long time but still.
2. When management has been telling people for years how badly they need a new ballpark because the current one sucks, that message sinks in pretty deeply.
3. Stuff like food carts, new seats, and A’s Access is nice and all but what would actually move the needle in terms of fan interest and engagement is if ownership and baseball operations committed legitimate resources towards the product on the field. When you have a 97 win team and a strong cost controlled position player core, but you commit the absolute bare minimum towards fixing the other gaping holes on the roster and you don’t sign your current stars to extensions when everyone else is doing it (as GM noted below), it’s probably not a surprise that no one is showing up to invest in this core when all signs indicate that it’ll be just as fleeting as the last few.
Especially when you have a guy like Davis actually saying he wants a reasonable 2 or 3 year extension and nothing happens. That’s pretty stupid and discouraging.
chapman is never ever gonna sign, but sign davis for three years and you ahve a ton of good PR.
As to lenscrafters point, sign a goddamned catcher and at keuchel. the draft isn’t going to save us if we keep getting michael choice, grant green and football mcfooterson
that laureano slide was effective
WALK MORELAND!
Heh, I was thinking “hit the cutoff man dammit”.
I thought safe in real time and on the first replay, now I think out. Which means they’ll call him safe.
i thought out, then safe, now out, which means safe
why is moreland at first?
Lazy? Thought hed hit the cut off man?
I thought safe but man that was a great play either way.
my logic is the lead foot hit the black and popped up. inconclusive
Attention: this Davis guy is a bit of a power hitter.
and pay Khris davis, please
Khris’ homers vs. Hundley’s GIDPs could be quite the seesaw battle until the Hundley DFA.
no chance in the 3rd!
Notice that Hundley didn’t waste his opportunity to practice his GIDP skills though. That grounder to shortstop was perfect.
Also, I was over here at the computer when Ed’s comment went up before the inning had even started on my TV; that’s why I can only comment between innings now.
he is committed
HRRRRRRRRamon!
Was that an earthquake?? No, it’s Ramon!
This may be an unpopular opinion but Dallas’s HR call is growing on me.
If it werent for a missing goatee amd the fact he would likely never be caught dead in MLB gear I would think the Spaceman was behind home plate.
*cautiously, in a near whisper* Brooks?
Possibly the best performance by an Aaron Brooks ever at the Coliseum? Certainly better than any football game.
petit up?
brooks is missing a lot
Team in a slump, defined: Lose 3 of 4 because you give up 34 runs, then finally get a decent start but get shut out for 6 innings by Aaron Brooks.
That was much needed before the upcoming Buchter/Hendriks inning.
but enough for the soria/rodney 8th and 9th?
Pray for rain/smoke em if you got em.
Rain blobs starting to move onto the Peninsula…
I’d stick with Wendelken, but am guessing Bob will go to Rodney, Because He’s Pitched The Ninth Before.
Agreed. Hell, get a couple of guys warm, but give the kid 1 batter and see how it goes. Especially at 5-0 or more.
Serious championship hangover going on here.
Now 41 runs, 15 homers allowed in 5 games. If Sale doesn’t hit 95 with his fastball tomorrow the sky will seriously start falling in Boston.
88 so far.
Route 88 to Poundtown
Chapmans hit left pretty fast. Does that help?
the red sox will give up like they asked the A’s to do a few years ago, yeah?
Heath Hembree Hit Hard.
That seems like a lot.
Tied with Arthur Rhodes, appropriately enough.
Coming up fast on Cy Young.
Heaven forbid Rodney have a clean inning.
shoot that poison arrow, fernando
ABBA C mashup.
shoot it in the air tonight, the save is bright, fernando
That Laureano homer was a BOMB.
So was that one.
i haven’t hated his at bats. some of the k’s are at least deep counts
well, not so much that one
Every team in the majors that has one is going to sign its young superstar to a big extension except for us, huh.
chapman is the only current guy with value. I don’t see boras signing a couple of years away like that.
That’s what I mean. I bet even the A’s would give Chapman the Acuna deal, but a guy with Boras as his agent will never take it.
I don’t know that’s necessarily true re: Chapman. Another Boras client, Bogaerts, just signed for 120 and he was a lot closer to FA. If the A’s brought 100 million to the table, I think they’ll at least listen.
difference is Bogaerts can be reasonably certain that he will be on ateam that will sign Sale/price JD martinez going forward
I was listening to Eck on the NESN telecast last night. He speculated(?) that Bogaerts wanted to stay in Boston and pushed Boras to make a deal. Eck also said that Bogaerts has “basically the same stats as Machado” so take his claims with a few grains of salt.
Kevin Pillar is a decent player overall, but trading for a 30-year-old outfielder with a career 86 OPS+ is still classic Giants.
have you seen the giants outfied? or infield? or starting pitching?
Yes, so why are they trading for another guy who is already past his prime?
Because they cannot get their hands on Cody Ross?
Zaidi left the laptop in LA
So Bob is going to try Kendrys protecting Khris vs. a lefty starter…hmmm…
WTF? Is Pinder injured?
FWIW
No, Glen and Ray, not the NASCAR look.
Olson would’ve had that.
Canha would have had that.
on matching catcher to the pitcher of the day, KK postulates that if one of them gets hot, they will play everyday
The only time either of these guys will get hot is if they get reassigned to Las Vegas.
no DP for phegley
just get him to 40 pitches josh
please hit the bad attitude lefty dan haren harder, guys
He has almost totally given up on the fastball.
And since he’s done:
Sale’s total career starts: 209
Starts with >1 K: 207
So frustrating to hit weak grounders all night vs. the junkballing lefty.
fiers is a rain delay
moreland. Can the A”s sign him and tell him to go fishing for a few years?
sigh
Why does “sweet” seem to fit so naturally with Lou? Is it just bias because we have already heard it so much?
One visionary paved the way.
Was he before Piniella?
Or this guy seems to predate both of them.
The only one’s I can think of that have not been given the moniker are Lew Burdette and Lou Brown. And considering Lou Brown is a fictional character and we do not yet have a movie with his origin story in the Major League cinematic universe I could be mistaken on him.
Interesting. I only associate it with Lou Whitaker. I guess every generation has its own Sweet Lou.
Nice job using Buchter for the bottom of the order and Lou for the top.
Oh my
yes. oh my
Not a fun series for Bogaerts.
Holy FK, what a game.
Indeed
Best OF arm since…Tony Armas?
The play last night brought to mind Cespedes, in that he had to misplay the ball first in order to get the chance to show off his arm.
I’m not complaining, but keeping the tying run at second with one out by playing the dang carom would have been advisable. Hell, he might have nailed Bogaerts at second if he was caught trotting out of the box.
Bogaerts needs to start leaving his wallet in the locker room. Weighing him down.
Hi guys.
The A’s evidently aren’t the only team who had issues with Entercom. This one is a little surprising. It’s not totally clear from the article whether the Mets or Entercom is more to blame.
Somewhat weird article. Not least because there’s no indication that the reporter tried to contact the Mets to let them respond to the local radio guy tearing them a new one.
These massholes hit Davis last night, and now Chapman.
We hit their guy who’s batting .000
Jackie Bradley Jr hit the ump.
Uh oh, bases loaded no outs for Laureano + Hundley again.
hundley tried to hit into a DP
Knocked his glove off!
When the A’s hit the stretch where the starting pitcher fails to survive the 3rd inning in 9 straight games, we’re going to remember this week fondly.
@soaker I keep thinking this. When we have a week where me make everything look easy it is so wonderful. Im living this moment so I dont feel bad when we give up 25 to slegnA.
Sounds like Ron Kulpa lost his mind tonight in Arlington.
Quick hook for Estrada please.
there weren’t any pitchers up after the walk
There was absolutely no reason for him to face JDM a third time.
absolutely
Come on man
Profar is such a disappointment.
That was a bizarre throw. It feels like might be battling The Creature.
I think he has a little bit of Sax-Knoblauch on short throws. Tries to aim it rather than just letting the throw go, winds up tossing a lollipop.
Profar sucks.
Wow. Good thing Profar doesnt usually need to try and complete DPs.
barretto would have been better sofar
We have a 13 man staff which forces us to play Profar every day.
And with 13 pitchers we had to bring Butcher in 3 games in a row?
Estrada looked like he wanted to slug Profar.
Profar should probably hit a homer or something.
Barreto: “What’s that you say? Profar made another error? Huh.”
Also…ORANGE?!?! Yuck.
LV looks like they want to be an Astros affiliate.
Syracuse
That was my thought as well.
J.B. Wunderkind
Rodney warming up…
i’d rather it be the closer, but whatever, that’s fine
It’s a little early to be pushing Treinen hard and this would be 4 out of 5 days.
Agreed, but Rodney’s spot should really be taken by someone else.
Does Petit still exist?
LOL he was safe
@andeux we are saving him in case he needs to throw 15 innings someday.
Jesus…the Jurickson store called. They’re running out of patience with Profar.
So they don’t take returns?
Rodney has given up hits to Nunez, Swihart, and Bradley.
Let’s see if he can get out Mookie Betts!
Nope!
Thanks, and go As.
Go figure.
Casilla somehow lasted til mid July last year. Hatcher made it the whole year. If Rodney is DFA’d by June, I count that as a win.
I hope Melvin at least gives Profar a day off today to think about what he’s done.
Nope. Pinder at 3B. Hopefully just a bruise for Chapman.
From the Athletic, regarding the Swihart hit in the Ninth:
I would have been OK with it hitting him.
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Sweet Lou Brown!
Holy crap this is cool.
Out?
No
Well, at least we can’t lose the series.
That could have been worse I suppose.
Great job by Profar to hit the ball so poorly he can avoid the DP. I’m worried I am racing towards CY25 territory.
That time he hit it just right.
But next time he built up that strength to make sure he got that DP taken care of.
We have to look beyond outfielders*. It’s moving into Jim Johnson territory as an opening-homestand faceplant.
* – Was looking at CY25, wrote “outfielders”, meant “position players”.
I was expecting boos last night.
Don’t Run on Robbie
Mood: improved
Sweet almond biscuits!!
Christ, pretty sure Profar had the out at 2nd
Wouldn’t have been easy, but a lot better chance than what he tried.
I couldnt even get upset about that at this point. Either base would have been a play that you need to be a good MLB 2B to make. I am at least realistic. Same thing with his latest K.
i’m sure at some point this will turn around and I will sing his praises while he carries the team on his back for a week, but this is getting ugly fast.
LOL!
LOL-Hamiltonian hijinx in the Sux outfield.
I want to think that someone in the RFB crew gets credit for an expertly timed “I GOT IT.”
Brett has worked around some bad ball calls the last couple of innings.
Phegley’s framing may be part of the problem.
Asking a lot of Brett here.
has anyone seen keichi Petit recently?
Warmed up for a second in the 9th last night I think?
He came in! Gave up a run-scoring triple.
That was a strike you FKing Masshole.
So are we asking for 2 innings from Sweet Lou? Not that he cant but ugh this season is still early.
Hopefully the “more runs” option is on the table.
The Aviator prospects did a lot of hitting on opening night:
Two homers for Fowler
A triple and a homer for Mateo
Two singles for Murphy
A double for Barreto
A single and a double for Neuse
A double and two singles for Ramirez
A single and a steal for Bolt
(checks to see how many runs they lost by)
Blevins, Triggs and Dull, there are more bullpen options when we get tired of the current ones.
Here’s hoping someone else jumps the line on those guys. Maybe Miguel Romero or Kyle Finnegan (currently in Midland). Or maybe they salvage Grant Holmes by making him a reliever.
The Giants could at least try to put up a fight against the Rays.
The insertion of Wilmer Font might help.
I wonder how much handwringing we are going to see in the local press about the seemingly meager turnout for their opener.
Eh, I think fair weather fandom in SF is pretty well expected.
Also it wont be a worry when the announced attendance will always be 30k plus.
Seattle’s bullpen might be a bit of a problem.
This song is going to become very familiar in the Northwest.
Also, 13 infield errors in 9 games.