A full week in Chicago commences with three on the North Side. This would be a fun road trip but Chicago is on the pricey side and in a week I would put on 10 pounds just from the pizza.
This series concludes the A’s NL Central games for the season. They are 9-4 and should be 10-3. Unless the A’s do something really special in September and October, my most vivid single memory of the season is still likely to be Starling Marte’s 13th-inning homer off Fernando Rodney heading in the direction of the Roberto Clemente Bridge.
Tonight at 5:05: Chris Bassitt vs. Kyle Hendricks
Tuesday at 5:05: Ex-Cub Brett Anderson (6 “Man this guy’s career is over” starts in 2017) vs. ex-Athletic Jon Lester
Wednesday at 11:20: Homer Bailey vs. Jose Quintana
Weather: Should be OK. Thunderstorms are supposed to hold off until after midnight tonight and clear out by game time tomorrow. It’s not too hot (better check with Bassitt on that though) but maybe a little muggy.
Ex-A’s: Lester is the only one on the Cubs’ 25-man roster. Addison Russell went 2-for-5 in the Iowa Cubs’ 10-1 win over the Tacoma Rainiers at Cheney Stadium this afternoon. Kendall Graveman is on the 60-day IL and apparently will not pitch at any level in 2019.
Steve Goodman wasn’t prolific but wrote some good stuff. Arlo Guthrie made “City of New Orleans” famous but Goodman wrote it. “Woman Goin’ Crazy on Caroline Street” is a fine ballad which remains a staple of Jimmy Buffett’s shows to this day. Goodman’s famous Cubs song is “Go Cubs Go” which isn’t a bad team rally song (I mean, it was written around the same time as that horrifying Houston Oilers polka thing that Howard Cosell loved so much) but he also wrote “A Dying Cubs Fan’s Last Request” which is much more dismal and showed up in 1983, when Lee Elia was ranting about the 15% of Chicago’s population that didn’t have jobs and came out to unlighted Wrigley Field on weekday afternoons to say bad things about the Cubs. The full song drones on a bit but I do like the chorus.
What I discovered Blew. My. Mind. -- Pat Boone
ack, delete mine please, i have never figured it out
thank you
I always check to see if somebody has a draft sitting there before I start writing something. This one is a little longer than usual because I was resting after working on the Thompson’s Water Seal re-staining job on the Bill King Deck. Our first snow is often seen in late September, certainly by the middle of October. I know you guys like your drinking water and all but I wouldn’t mind an easier winter than the last one.
I usually check before i post, I didn’t this time because i figured it was too early
Good. The last thing he needs to be doing is running into brick walls.
I don’t like the look of that front foot off balance end of the ball pop up that almost got to the warning track
yep. this is going to be an alcoholic nightmare game.
no ray, that ball was not going out because it was hit hard
It looks like the Wrigley wind is doing its thing tonight. Also the temperature is warmer than the forecast I was looking at and we’ll see how Bassitt handles it this time.
I hope this time he took it easy during base running practice.
the crowd is very reative
restive?
reactive?
creative?
reactive
shoot. i was hoping they were all cousins. and some of them got on a train going at the speed of light, while the others…
0-2 to double. also, no ray, they were not pitcher pitches, they were bad pitches
0-2 to walk
a run or over 50 pitches please
two is fine
Granted that Profar bounced the throw to Olson on the GIDP but at least it was accurate. It seems the shorter the throw, the more problems he has, and if he has any future in the infield, getting him to some position other than 2B would clear up that part of it.
Lamb: He’s been playing a long time and is one of the best in the game, so our first year together I asked him, “Do you have a favorite strikeout? Is there a guy you idolized growing up that you struck out?” He kind of gave me the nod, thinking, thinking, and then he started laughing. Like, belly laughing. I was like, “You got one?” He was like, “Yeah. It was actually here at Chase Field. I threw a changeup in the other batter’s box and the guy swung and almost fell over.” I said, “Zack, was that me two years ago?” He started laughing even louder. “Yeah, that was you.”
Bassitt was doing his usual hot-weather thing in that inning again with runners on: kicking at the mound, asking for the signs again, etc. Don’t think you have to get 6 full innings out of him tonight, Bob, because it’s just going to get worse. I don’t think it’s a conditioning thing, more that “Damn it’s hot out here” is the main thing going through his mind rather than focusing on executing a pitch.
Fewer than 20 pitches total in the 4th and 5th, with just one baserunner (two out hit by Hendricks), eliminates that problem for now.
Sometimes you just never know what you’re going to see.
Ray, channeling Joaquin Andujar.
that was the exact same play. I wish pitching ninja would overlay those
bob? 6 innings?
Can we win this game with one hit?
We cannot.
Indians and Rays have both lost.
profar has not been good at baseball, but I like how he is having fun
Baez was kinda fooled, almost took a knee when he swung, hit it a little off the end of the bat, and cranked it 450 feet to left center.
The FK
Thanks, and go As.
The Laureano injury is giving Canha a great chance to go into spring training as the 150-game left fielder in 2020. Or to prove that would be a lousy idea but it doesn’t seem to be going that latter direction.
Tonight looks too much like most of Piscotty’s nights before he got hurt.
OK, that one didn’t need any help from the wind.
That escalated quickly
Out of the woods for first time in 8 days and Treinen immediately blows a lead I’m going back into the wild.
So much for Treinen being back.
Lucroy apparently cleared waivers and the Angels released him today. If nobody wants him to catch the rest of the season, maybe the A’s hire him as a special assistant coach to get Treinen and Trivino fixed going into the offseason, much the same as when Ron Washington first came back specifically to work with Semien.
Wait Laureano is hurt?
And you only missed three mass shootings. Yes, Laureano is gone until sometime in September.
I got chosen for special TSA screening in Denver so now I feel safer than ever.
Don’t hand your driver’s license that says “Berkeley” to the guy who checks that against your boarding pass. Your passport doesn’t mention Berkeley so I’d use that instead.
I usually do travel by passport not DL, didn’t this time, maybe that’s it but still seems a stretch.
Separately, the cultural divide is a lot easier to put out of mind when I don’t leave coastal California so perhaps I’ll stay put.
Considering that I have to go down to Carson City, Minden or Gardnerville at least a couple times a month, I’ve been very surprised that my “I Didn’t Vote For Trump” bumper sticker has survived unvandalized since November 2016.
It’s sad that this surprises me. For bizarre historic reasons Nurse Upgrade will soon be a duel citizen of Luxembourg, so there’s my ultimate escape hatch. What a fucking era.
Yeah, he had been playing with a “stress reaction” in his shin since Japan, apparently.
OK that was pretty cool.
Everybody in the park knows where Nick’s family is sitting.
Ed called “alcoholic nightmare” three hours ago and the A’s could make this a real wake-up-screaming one for the Cubs.
bassitt really dodged it all night
Let’s go Khris!
wouldn’t call it a trump card, ken
Another go-to expression of mine I can’t use any more. Now I need to learn Luxembourgouis.
hail satan sign.
“ace of spades”
let anybody think what they wanna think.
Vince has occasionally used “chink in the armor” and I always think, can’t you please come up with another phrase?
Rats
Drat.
That was the teAsiest teAse a teAse could be.
Needed one well-timed gust of wind there, or maybe one of the super-hard baseballs.
good news is that is clearly their best pitcher, treinen is done for the series and no ground was lost.
I had thought that Treinen was figuring it out (it looks like he’s throwing the slider again), but this meltdown was just sad. This is just a lost year for him and Trivino.
he really did seem better. he threw 13 of 17 pitches for strikes. so, yay?
I do think he’s been coming around, and apparently so does he. Not happy about the results last night:
Crazy
So now the games in Japan are forfeits, right?
Ramoncito is way better
It amazes me how boring so many of these are.
I like Profar’s and Estrada’s, even though I don’t like either player.
“Gut It Out”? Some team must have a “Gritty”.
Apparently, that’s the name of his charity for people with ulcerative colitis, so Diekman gets a pass. The others, not so much.
OK, I didn’t know his history so forgive me for jumping to a conclusion on that one. He’s the one who had the disease and had surgeries for it fairly recently.
I can’t wait to get the al pedrique’s “libtard” jersey at auction
He’s Venezuelan so I assume that’s a call to arms.
The idea of a Martini emoji jersey is kind of cool.
It took me so long not to see libtard, though.
The uniforms are going to look awful.
What the fuck.
Korach, who hates the Angels’ red jerseys with red numerals, has to be checking to see if he has any vacation time left.
I don’t get it, is it a league wide funeral?
I’d rather watch them naked than in that dumpster fire of a uniform. Probably would sell more tickets and merch doing that too.
Cups, cleats, and mitts.
Mitts?
They’ll be able to plant some spies in the White Sox dugout.
Way better than Chappy:
I’m expecting Anderson to improve on his .667 season batting average tonight. Maybe even steal a base off Lester too.
Brett’s 1.333 OPS has led the club most of the season, but Garneau has taken over with his 1.750, so there’s a real duel at the bottom of the lineup tonight.
Brett’s going to have to step it up.
lefty on lefty gets a break
is it irrational hate?
“Having Lester” was not really the problem in 2014; “not having Cespedes” was a bigger deal. I don’t care that much for him but there’s no hate.
six run lead, something something, throw to first something something, maybe its bob something something.
I don’t know, but I am greatly enjoying this inning.
Still enjoying.
can confirm
Can I still subscribe to this newsletter?
Lester will forever be the face I associate with that awful night.
I’m afraid to look back at whatever angry drunken comments I must have made, but probably will when I get a chance tonight.
I see I decided to focus on the game and let others do the game threading. I was sober and subdued. I can always tell when I look back at these things whether I was drinking; I can always spell and punctuate but tone and content gives it away. The game ended just before my 9:55 comment; you can look at your comments if you dare.
Me at 629pm: Lester looks good to me, says here KC’s done scoring off him.
I will say, with nearly five years passed and no hard feelings, and with full understanding that that awful painful slow motion 2014 collapse had many points of blame, roughly zero of them attributable to internet commenters, that if we are fortunate enough to see the A’s in the postseason this year the game thread needs to be posted by someone who hasn’t just shown up for the first time in months.
Yikes! An Aces who had been seperated for just about 5 months and 4 months away from being laid off was 1 hell of a downer.
But he also said the window was closing for 2-3 yrs before we would get back to the playoffs, so he wasnt a total idiot.
I had forgotten about Norris dropping a pitchout.
all in all I was pretty negative, which is par for the course. I thin I have said a version of this in every gamethread ever
My only take at this point is that I’m glad Moss’s last game with the A’s was a good one.
That entire season destroyed me. That game was our entire season lived out in a single game. My baseball fandom was likely irreparably destroyed by it.
That season really made my life worse in a way sports never has at any other time. Not exactly what I’m talking about above, but I resumed smoking for several months starting in the 4th inning or so.
this so so this.
And then there was the giants winning and the election where we got wiped out followed by a shit 2015
that looked like a terrible play
double needed for the cycle in this inning
send the runners!!!
Kick save!
Heh heh heh.
more outs brett
Except when you’re hitting.
He hasn’t made one yet.
Garneau 2.067
Brett 1.600
We are really going with jon, joe?
cool, he gets on
this is irritating me more than it should
Puk for Wang please
But if we do that, we’ll lose the absolute, most original, nickname on the back of the jersey for player’s weekend.
Puk for Trivino please
It’s becoming cruel to keep running him out there. Vegas for a month just has to happen, and now.
Even 2-3 weeks until September call ups might be good enough. Let him get into all kinds of trouble down there to play around and figure it out.
got two options
I know they want him to pitch back-to-back days before calling him up, but is that really necessary? I would be surprised if the FO let Melvin use him on back-to-back days in the majors until maybe the playoffs.
Ijust don’t get it. I mean I understand how important he was last year, and maybe you dont want to embarrass him or something. But what purpose is there in having him sit in the bullpen, come out once a week or so and get shelled?
Gonna self reply because my comment actually made me go to Bref. I guess the thought is he is getting close. In 8 out of his last 11 appearances he has had an inning or more and not been scored on. But when he misses he misses big. IMO all the more reason to send him down for like 10 days to get the back to back reps and get over the hump.
Yeah, there’s clearly *something* needs to work on. And not just one of those spiels that are given when they want to send someone who sucks down. There’s gotta be a mechanical flaw in there somewhere. But stick him in games that matter and hoping he can find it and fix it is just foolish. Let him do that in AAA where the outcome matters less than the process.
Garneau’s current 1.500 OPS is ahead of Brett’s 1.333. Brett may get one more shot in San Francisco, although I would use the off days to rearrange it so Bailey and Roark pitch over there. Meanwhile, Garneau has attained full platoon status to the point of catching today’s day game following a night game.
Bailey’s meltdowns are truly spectacular.
Homer dancing pretty close to the edge here in the 4th.
Any Homer make Aces something something.
And now plummeting over the precipice.
D’oh!
Denied entrance to the No Homers club once again.
Blake Treinen, mop-up man.
Last season: 2 HR in 80-1/3 IP
This series: 3 HR in 1-2/3 IP
At least I dont have to have the stupid thought in my head of “if we could have carried last night’s runs to today…”
But if we could have borrowed two of them on Monday…
uni-watch is sleeping.
they’re discussing what colors go with celeste. and some kind of life-size chess game a that the MLB is gonna attempt later this month.
meanwhile, at the panamericans, argentina women’s basketball had to concede to colombia because they brought the wrong jerseys.
I’m not a scientanalysis. But my edumacation suggests that the Tigers & Giants are simply playing in the wrong stadiums for the dingers.
The A’s hit 9 HRs in 3-7/9 games in Comerica Park in May. Overall, the Tigers have been outhomered at home, 86-37.
I don’t like off days and now we have four in a 16 day span.
It goes beyond just wanting my team to be playing a baseball game I can watch. There’s something unsettling about off days. Like walking into your house expecting your family to be home and instead it’s all dark and there’s no one there.
At least it isn’t another of those Friday off days. Certain things just cannot be.
We’ve got another of those cursed schedule nullities in two weeks.
It’s like the A’s said honey I’m going down to the corner for a pack of smokes and never came back.
I feel ya. And tomorrow’s game is at noon- wtf?
I guess the Sox are trying to get some of that Cubs day-drinking crowd.
I was thinking maybe “last weekday of summer vacation” for kids, as a lot of schools including those here in Douglas County start on Monday. Give them a summer vacation please. However, looking at the Chicago Public Schools calendar that’s not the situation; they open the day after Labor Day, as it should be.
This. I heard some are already back. Mine start the 20th, which is still 2 weeks too early.
Especially weird to do a Friday day game, and then a Saturday night game.
Yusmeiro Petit would like to have a word with you.
I was writing down the lineups for Indians vs. Twins and looked up everybody’s birthplace. The A’s have never had a composition anything like this.
6 – USA 50 states
6 – Dominican Republic
3 – Puerto Rico
3 – Venezuela
1 – Cuba
1 – Germany
I just recently read that Luzardo will (would?) be the first MLB player born in Peru.
Also, watching Nelson Cruz leave that game with a hand or wrist injury, it seems to me every non-pitcher should head for the surgeon in November to have both hamate bones removed. It would be like having your tonsils removed, which did not happen with me but a lot of my 2nd and 3rd grade classmates did have that surgery (it was sold as “You get to eat all the ice cream you want!” at the time).
Interview in The Athletic with Mark Davis:
We’re putting in the fucking “Coppola Boxes” and the fucking “Golden Road Landing” and the fucking “Stomper Zone” and if you have to relocate 50 fucking people who are fucking stupid enough to renew season tickets in those areas for your fucking pathetic 2019 season, then fucking Fuck You Mark.
What a prick. They spent years disingenuously claiming they needed the entire Coliseum site so as to have parking lots for tailgating and the A’s were in the way. The blatant ignoring of obvious facts is…well, I guess it’s the style of the day. Jerk.
Hey Mark, there’s literally nothing the A’s front office can do to measure up to the complete and utter dickery of building a giant mountain of a useless building in the most inconvenient spot of someone else’s beautiful home. Besides, you’ve made it clear you’re leaving and decided at the last minute to use the stadium one last season, so tough shit if that makes it hard on you.
Take two and hit to right…and left.
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(the slo-mo at the end is the best part)
haven’t read it myself. but it may be of interest ’round these parts.
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/khris-davis-isnt-batting-247-%f0%9f%98%b1/
I have not eaten at Mourad so I have not had the opportunity to visit its facility on this finalist list either. The amazing thing about the finalist list is the appearance of LaGuardia Airport, which should never be on a “Best Of” list for anything. There’s also a Hall of Fame in the menu at the top of the page which the Coliseum somehow has failed to attain.
Chapman! Please keep doing that again!
union man
Looks like he went grey overnight.
Piscotty!
Not cool, Jerry
Gotta hand it to the PA operator for playing “Let It Be” during that home run review.
Good work veganryan
Watching Joe West waddle around out there, it is kind of remarkable that he is considered fit enough to umpire major league baseball games.
I never have facial hair, because my beard is hella lame. I grew it out on my trip to the mountains, it’s mostly gray, and I’ve been slowly whittling it away since I got back. Now I’m left with a mustache that looks like Fosse’s.
nationals sure trade away a lot of pitching talent
Bummer indeed
At least Luzardo is pitching tonight
Lots of 1B and BB but always ending in LOB unless it’s a GIDP.
The A’s have had the last three nights free in Chicago and the nightlife may be taking its toll tonight.
So many opportunities…
I remember when I was thrilled to see Khris at the plate in that situation.
Fire Lampard
I love seeing the SOX in their Carlton Fisk jammies.
I especially like the numbers next to their crotches.
83 with 51% humidity. Im guessing we can expect the disgruntled slow Hound today.
Good enough against these guys.
Fascinating discussion about how worthy Harold Baines was to get into the HoF.
Legend
Side note: The Reds should be wearing those throwbacks 81 games a season forever. They are beautiful.
Another side note: I never heard of AJR. Huh, they are big enough to headline at places like the Bill Graham Civic and Red Rocks.
Right on cue, Joe West gives one of those to Bassitt.
Well, I can’t speak for his inconsistency, it was below the letters, especially after you account for his ridiculous squat as he swings. But there are so many reason to fire the guy, it’s sad that they resist.
Profar is a fucking joke.
Change the mentality by having he and Pinder change jobs. I don’t know that it would be better for him or the team, but it would not be worse.
Yes.
If Canha strikes out in the 9th inning, they’re going to have to stop on the way to the airport to pick up a second sombrero.
A tidy, aesthetically pleasing low-scoring win remains my favorite type of ball game.
Three 1-0 games today. That’s odd.
MLB was in a hurry to rush out the 2020 schedule. It used to come out about a week after Labor Day.
April 2, 4 and 5 in Minneapolis sounds fun, and if everybody escapes that without pneumonia there’s another chance when the A’s go to Cleveland on April 21-23.
The A’s cannot be happy that all of their home games against the Yankees and Red Sox are completed on April 15.
By April 5, the season will be 10 games old, and the A’s will have played all seven of the season’s games against the Twins.
It really can’t be *that* hard to make a schedule that makes sense. Half of games played against a team should be in the first half and the other half during the second half. Even accounting for inter league, it’s insane that they’d do that.
They have the same thing with the Tigers (all 6 games in 10 days) and Royals (7 games, 11 days).
August 2020 is going to be pretty hairy. From the 6th through the 30th:
@NYY(4)
@WAS(3)
@BOS(3)
CLE(3)
NYM(3)
@ATL(2)
@TOR(4)
On the attendance front, it’s good that the Mets are coming in, but you’d rather host the Phillies or Nationals instead of the Marlins.
If we have yet another slow April it may not matter. That beginning schedule could put us way in the cellar.
On the Giants schedule they show a game against the River Cats in Sacramento on Sunday 3/22, then just one Bay Bridge series game at each park on Monday and Tuesday, down from one at the Coliseum and two in San Francisco as they have done in recent years. Good riddance from my perspective, although I think players would prefer the one extra day in the Bay Area before the season starts.
No reason they can’t get in another preseason home game there against someone else.
Maybe they want to play a game in Vegas.
The 51s usually hosted a “Big League Weekend” where two Cactus League teams came up and played a couple games at Cashman Field. The Cubs were often one of the teams even though Las Vegas was never affiliated with them. They didn’t do it this year because the ballpark wasn’t quite ready but I would guess they will resume that in 2020. Could be A’s vs. Cubs, A’s vs. ??? or Cubs vs. ???.
This subject reminded me to update the River Cats’ average attendance table. The owner lady thought the switch from A’s to Giants affiliation was going to reverse her issue with declining attendance at Raley Field but it doesn’t seem to be working that way.
2013 (A’s): 8435
2014 (A’s): 8561
—–
2015 (Giants): 9338
2016: 8587
2017: 8032
2018: 7808
2019: 7794
The clear conclusion is she needs to change teams every year.
Never really had the ball in his hand, just his fingers. Oof.
Why would he have $500,000 worth of stuff in his car?
Why would he park the car on the street instead of in some VIP lot?
Why would he be driving himself to the game from wherever he’s staying?
Why would he rent a car in San Francisco?
It’s whys all the way down.
Why has newspaper reporting degenerated to “I’ll just gather a bunch of tweets and post them to make an article”?
This dipshit lives in Massachusetts and hasn’t even decided which of five Arizona congressional districts he might theoretically pretend to move to in order to get his ass kicked.
How much money did Rhode Island lose on that failed business of his? Even in a conservative district, that would be a nasty skeleton in the closet.
When you’re handing tax dollars to the insanely wealthy, including (especially) businesses that don’t need it, instead of homeless vets, children, and those coming to this country seeking asylum, you’re an asshole if you blame it on anyone else.
$75M (plus attorneys fees and cost) less $2.5M settlement
“…eh.”
—elizabeth warren
40-man move needed, with no obvious 60-day DL candidates.
I’m thinking Tanner Anderson DFA. Wang, Blackburn, Garneau, Hermann and Taylor are on DFA-watch when space is needed for Puk/Manaea/Luzardo. I guess Profar and Martini are also outside candidates.
Given the roster crunch, pretty impressive for Joseph to force his way on.
SuSlu says Jospeph probably replaces Martini on the active roster, so that means Profar isn’t being DFAd (yet).
I would like to keep Garneau but it seems like he’s the clear DFA candidate since Phegley is coming back. Or they could cut Phegley.
Anderson/Wang seems like the likely DFA for Puk.
Huh. LHH 2B. He has good numbers at LV, but so do lots of guys.
Do they just want to add another bench bat for the last two NL games (in which case, why not today?) or are they going to give him a shot at starting (presumably in a platoon with Pinder)?
144 wRC+, so he isn’t just keeping pace with the league. 32 walks and 45 strikeouts on the season.
OK, that last part is impressive. A lot of the other guys putting up big numbers (Neuse, Barreto, Mateo, Brown) are also striking out 25% of the time against AAA pitching,
Not adding him for the game Bumgarner is starting suggests to me that they intend to platoon him.
Some guy responded to her, asking “only for tomorrow’s game?” and she wrote back “Are you being pedantic? I will assume not…”
assume not…
pedantic? or just tomorrow’s game?
Also, I shouldn’t get excited about good rehab outings by Luzardo and Manaea, because they’ll both just get hurt again, right?
Correct.
I’d like to start with just not wasting Puk. Let him throw every 2-3 days up here.
Can’t be worse than Lou, yeah?
Exactly
For a team that likes the opener, they might as well use his as such.
We all get hurt again, eventually.
For we are A’s fans.
Grossman is starting against Bumgarner, with Pinder at second, in case there was any confusion about Profar being in the doghouse.
did he do something in chicago? I missed the white sox game, but saw a lenscraftera comment. forgot about it and moved on
He had at least one airmailed throw on the back end of a potential DP. And his usual bad ABs.
He popped up a whole lot, and I think he FKed up at least one throw.