Houston comes in for a series that could be important for playoff seeding.
Fri: Bassitt vs. Greinke
Sat: Montas vs. Framber Valdez
Sun: Luzardo vs. Cristian Javier
The A’s have the 3 starters I would want out there. Brave truth-teller Mike Fiers misses his old team this time around.
I haven’t heard of two of the Houston starters, but it looks like they’ve been good so far.
The ‘strisks are also without George Springer, who is out with a wrist injury.
Games 14-16: Christ, what an * 281
281 thoughts on “Games 14-16: Christ, what an *”
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Altuve Springer and Bregman (yes) have all sucked so far this year. Their productivity, says Dallas, into the garbage can.
fosse talking about jomboy
I think i like this fosse
Reddick with short hair and no beard could be Greinke’s brother.
ken said greinke was sitting in the stands to the right of the dugout
Yeah, they showed that on TV.
I just can’t help liking him.
Martin? I admit to only having the radio on, but this was a misplayed pop out
Martin Maldonado: .644 career OPS, .842 against Oakland (119 PA)
I still think we should have signed him just so we wouldn’t have to face him.
The Chrinios-Maldonado tandem the Astros had last year was pretty annoying.
Big contact from Olson and Chapman, now someone else.
That was not big contact Mark.
Throw FKing strikes.
Flashing the Bed-signal
murphy no longer uses the passenger?
He still was on the last homestand.
I am looking forward to seeing the new Go-Gos documentary this weekend. How about “This Town”?
Ugh
Oh is that an Earthquake? No. Its Ramon!
Sheesh
Ugh.
Ugly strike 3 for Chapman. Otherwise, mostly have to give credit to Greinke.
LOL
Always have liked Grossman. Please dont validate that info.
Maybe this will teach Dusty that he needs to stay with his starters longer.
i laughed
OK who’s hitting the slam this time?
Seems like it’s lined up pretty well for Kemp.
To give us a one run win after Diekmann is done.
Not liking Myles Straw starting off at 2B.
No worries, Diekman is pitching…
It will be Murphy for us, so presumably a pinch-runner whether the *’s score or not.
Having Maldonado bunt, followed by pinch-hitting a guy batting .158 is peak Dusty.
Holy fk, thank you Dusty, home plate ump, and lord Chapman.
Kemp is doing all the annoying things I used to hate him for when he played against us.
Marcus did not look ready for that heat.
Bob upping the degree of difficulty in extra innings with diekmann/Wendelken
I wonder what our fans would’ve said to Correa after that painful shot.
“That’s not where the buzzer is supposed to go.”
Come on. End this!
Pathetic, how many Ks is that with a runner on 3rd now?
Paredes was pretty nasty.
in loco
Please win here I don’t know how much more of this I can take.
I am pacing like its the playoffs
I was about to make a snarky comment about how it’s typical A’s results in the playoffs too when Allen got to 2 strikes, but I’m taking this as a sign that maybe things will be different this year.
Think I might trust Kemp more than Semien right now to get the winning hit.
A bases-loaded walk is the only way either of these teams wins tonight.
mercifully it started at 610
Stop it!
Isn’t it supposed to be us throwing at their batters?
Yes this ain’t right, both Grossman and Laureano got hit in especially painful spots. I hope Montas took note.
Laureano’s already been hit three times this year. I don’t like it.
This is bullshit.
Are we allowed “normal” retaliation on the Astros or is Manfred gonna dish out a ridiculous punishment for that too?
WHAT THE FUCK
Didnt they hit us a bunch last year too?
Hoping for a 15-2 A’s lead today so as noy to worry about it.
neither team deserves to win this game
this is so dumb
Davis is the last person I want to see here.
do not swing khris
WHAT DID ED JUST SAY KHRIS?
he is not ok
You don’t put up a 50 wRC+ against right handers last year and it’s suddenly fixed because he had one decent game.
When that situation comes up again in the 16th I want Piscotty batting.
he cannot play tomorrow
Lefty tomorrow.
sigh
I thought he really had looked better recently (even going back to before the 1 HR) but those two AB’s in extra innings were just awful.
I agree he looks better, but I don’t think he has the strength.
New guy!
Never ending
How many chances at the walkoff slam are we going to spurn?
Holy fking shit
Never in doubt?
I take back what I said about you Marcus.
never in doubt. I believe
Game ball to Wendelken.
i have been voting at fangraphs on the star of the game
Bassitt deserving too.
I did wendelken 3 bassitt 2 and greinke 1
Chris Bassitt may be our ace now. Three starts, WHIP under 1.00, no homers allowed.
A season with all but two games on the west coast or indoors may turn him into Pedro.
He’s been quietly really good since coming back from surgery.
208 innings, 125 ERA+ 2018-2020.
That almost feels more like a loss. What a horror show.
did the A’s leave the bases in the 13th?
Loaded? Yes.
I didn’t ask what you were
(but yes)
It’s been one of those days …
* had to think this was the sure game of the series.
I just realized that Dusty intentionally walked the winning run. LOL.
i can hear capitol corridor like its seattle
Last major prep race today prior to the Kentucky Derby. Tiz The Law has been the best 3 year old horse in the world so far this year, and I expect more of the same. I’ll be trying to replicate my successful Belmont strategy of playing him on top of an exacta. On Fox at 3:00.
Oh a horse racing fan! OK, I’ve been trying to figure this out. Did they ever stop doing horse racing for the pandemic? The weird gas station where I buy cigarettes plays nothing but horse racing on the TV above the door (yes, it’s above the door where no one would look at it, like I said it’s weird) and they never stopped showing it. Horse racing, horse racing, horse racing. So did horse racing ever shut down?
Varied widely by track, state or even county. Some tracks never closed, others shut for 1-3 months, AFAIK they’re all running now.
I see. Was one of the ones that stayed open Golden Gate Golden Gate GOLDEN GATE FIELDS?
closed for about a month.
$2 exacta 6/2,3,7. $1 tri 6/2/3,4,7.
Dominant easy win for TTL, he’ll be possibly the heaviest favorite in KYD history in a month. Short prices make me a modest loser on the race, but I’m alive in a pick 3 with the next race.
It looked like he started to veer to the outside out of the last turn, and I thought maybe he was getting tired. Instead his jockey straightened him out and he left everyone else in the dirt.
By the end of this weekend the number of games played by NL Central teams will be 16 (Pirates and Reds), 13 (Cubs and Brewers) and 5 (Cardinals).
So STL will have something like 50 days to play 55 games.
Also, Miami is 5-0 since losing half their team to COVID.
The Cardinals could also yet be on the receiving end of a series cancellation, if some other team in the division had an outbreak.
I don’t think the Pac-12 is even going to manage to start its football season, but the plan for now is a 10-game schedule. A team must play a minimum of (average games played by all teams in the conference, minus one) to be eligible for the conference championship game, so for example if the average played by all teams is 9 games but one team is part of 3 of the cancellations, that team will be disqualified even if they’re undefeated.
The idea of colleges that aren’t able to hold in-person classes asking students to play a football season is beyond absurd. But so on brand.
I’m lukewarm on this baseball season, but the notion of college football is flat out disgusting. Jon Wilner has done plenty of reporting on the financial impact of cancelling a season of football; it’s all about that.
The headlines I’m seeing on this tonight are a relief. Going forward didn’t have much chance of working out.
Ah, the majesty and purity of student athletics.
JAJAJAJAJA
was it over when the germans bombed pearl harbor??
No-it was over when the Spanish flu ended WWII.
KKkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk
asvd
Forget it – he’s rolling.
Old white guy can’t see past his personal relevance/paycheck. News at 11.
Former Football Coach Thinks He Was A General isn’t exactly man bites dog either.
Jeter must be so pissed that they’re winning.
Less than 50 days.
Now scheduled for 53 games in 44 days starting tomorrow – that’s 2 off days, and 11 doubleheaders. And that still leaves them 2 games short of 60, but maybe the league decided that’s close enough.
Shitshow of the Day should be right here in Douglas County. #BlackLivesMatter vs. Second Amendment Militia. It will be fun, I’m sure.
And apparently this didn’t amount to anything serious, because not many BLM protestors showed up. Mostly turned into a Blue Lives Matter/Trump rally.
These militia idiots are terrifying, the chance of these random mouthbreathers shooting peaceful protestors between now and Nov feels incredibly high.
Happy to oblige, Dusty.
That messi kid is pretty good
A Semien! I’ve missed those!
We need more of them
I was hoping for a full course of Framber Flambé in that first inning but we only got the appetizer.
Hm Frankie’s velocity seems a little lower today than usual but hopefully nothing concerning.
94, 96, 88, 96
Yeah it was a lot better that inning.
take more pitches khris
take pitches this inning please
that ain’t it
that was worse
are they double parked?
good job matt c and mark
I am once again asking for more run support.
the good news is dusty will leave him in too long
Altuve suddenly looks awful at everything.
DO NOT SWING KHRIS
Will be interesting to see how Bob manages the 8th and 9th. Diekman warming now, maybe then Petit? Or…Lou??? I don’t think he’ll use Soria or Hendriks.
Would be 6 out of 8 days, and 3 straight, for Hendriks. Total of 69 pitches in those prior 5 games.
Nice.
WELL, SOMEONE HAD TO SAY IT
I mean, it’s gonna work out for him, but what is dusty doing leaving this kid in?
Dusty’s family was murdered by a gang of young pitchers’ arms. He’s had a vendetta against them ever since.
Cal produce Collin Morikama has played himself into a 2nd place tie with a great round in progress. Complete with a GO BEARS scorecard wallet sticking out of his back pocket
go bears with marcus at the plate
I was watching a tournament a few weeks ago where he was wearing a red shirt. I get kids of that generation admiring Tiger, but just, no.
Collin Morikawa reads FK.
Great win for the kid, that drive to set up the eagle on 16 was amazing, ended the chance of everyone else with that one shot.
I did not see a single player wearing a red shirt all day.
Spot on, the drive of a lifetime.
good luck in 2021 Khris. I will miss you this year, but you have to get right
I hate to make this comparison but he’s on a Billy Butler career path.
Ugh, wish Montas at least pitched to Correa.
Tough-ass lefty gets it done.
9 strikes 1 ball – see it’s easy
He left that pitch to Correa up but that’s still better than throwing 17 straight sliders out of the zone.
Ever since someone from the A’s bench chirped at the home plate ump, he’s been calling every borderline pitch against them and looking over at the dugout afterwards.
Can’t wait until these FKers get their last bit of power stripped away from them.
It’s like they don’t realize that the fans are cardboard. There’s no crowd to play to.
At least for the worst asshole umps, like Angel and Joe West, the fans don’t matter at all, it’s about asserting their authoritah over the athletes.
I was just thinking about how much worse the East teams have it this year having to deal with the Joe West/Angel Hernandez crew constantly.
FK off cheaters.
Best record in the AL.
yay.. tomorrow is gravy
Is ManChap trying to grow a mustache again?
Gnats lol
I mean, I can’t stand them, but good God, why is Kapler playing Pence in the field? Or at all.\
Well, they do play the Astros next…
99 mph last pitch to Bregman
A “Robbie Thompson” homerun opened the scoring according to Vince.
That was fair.
OK, THAT was fair.
Indeed it was. Oddly, the first one looked fair to me pre-replay, so I’m surprised (and, as it turned out, happy) there was no challenge.
Unbelievable they’re not challenging this
I mean, 4D chess move to not challenge it.
Ball don’t lie.
I will now delete my partially made comment about not challenging.
I would not have deleted my comment to the umpire as I rounded third base. Do they have to send in a pinch-runner to complete the trip around the bases if you’re ejected right then?
I think yes. Do you only get credited with a triple?
Matt to Matt!
Jo Adell just pulled a Glove Canseco.
Matt attack!
That was so satisfying. FK those fking cheaters. The only thing missing was Canha following with B2B2B and flipping his bat into their dugout.
13 HBP for our batters, 2 by our pitchers.
Yeah, somebody in a gray uniform is getting a fastball in the knee in the last few innings.
Didnt expect it to be their P…
Mengden needs some work.
Lou throws harder.
Bregman up 3rd in the 8th.
Hahaha Altuve guess you didn’t know that pitch was coming.
Nice swing, B*
LOL Dusty.
FK off Dusty.
The Astros are doing the same as the A’s did, second series with the same crew. That and the losing streak will combine.
I’m starting to be convinced that Burch Smith is actually pretty good. I haven’t looked up how much, but it seems like his fastball has a ton of backspin.
It looks like this year he’s setting a career high in spin rate RPM, the exact same as Hendriks’s spin rate this year.
Motherfuckers.
10 games for Laureano, I bet. You cannot do that this year.
No, I think this will be more typical. The Astros were clearly the instigators and antagonizers.
that is all I can think. Not having seen or heard anything other than he charged the dugout
I’m going to be optimistic and say 5 for Laureano and 10 for Cintron.
I’ve seen it.
Before I ask about allen, I love how ramon is telling castellanos how to throw a curveball. Whatever suspension he gets should be discounted by that brilliance.
now, Allen?
I will be shocked if Cintron gets more than Ramon.
OK, this is the best take.
That’s what brought me into this thread.
My hope is 5 for Laureano, the season for Cintron.
Same here
I would not have a beef with that
This all stems from MLB protecting these cheating fucks and letting them feel like they can get away with anything.
Someone fucking hit Bregman in the fucking ribs.
Their hitting coach was also baiting him from the dugout. What bullshit.
But Soaker is also right. Laureano just plain can’t do that, and now we lose our best player for a week.
Also Aldrete might have done something to stop him.
And what makes them feel like they can antagonize and hit players with impunity? MLB’s limp dick approach to this whole mess.
Very much this. Also doesnt it seem like we do very little of the normal retaliation? I hate all this BS but it feels like teams (esp the Astros) think they can get free shots.
I’m opposed to throwing at people intentionally except maybe in the most egregious circumstances.
This year it is now 14 vs. 2. Probably 80% of that is just that our pitchers are mostly good, and a lot of the ones we’ve faced are not. But these ones sure looked like they might have been intentional. But now we’re at a point if we do retaliate, it will just lead to more of our guys getting suspended.
The fastball to Laureano’s back from the guy we traded for him had all the indicia of an intentional pitch. The second one had all the indicia of a shitty pitcher.
Re the first hbp, note that the day before Dave Stewart tweet mocked Astros for the trade and Bailey “liked” the tweet.
Yep. Second pitch of the AB, fastball right at his back.
Agree re Aldrete. His job to hold back there.
Cintron should have gotten Hinched in the intiail investigation anyway.
Allen vs. Maldonado looked like a goalie fight.
Sigh..just realized a consequence of this is more KD vs right handers.
I would prefer to see Seth Brown, but you’re probably right.
Sweep. FK you Astros.
I never thought I could hate a team in the West more than the slegnA, but things have changed quickly in less than a year.
Remember this?
Making himself the victim is part of Dusty’s schtick.
I really like Melvin’s kind, calm, ethical nature. But this is one of those situations where I wouldn’t mind seeing how LaRussa would handle it.
I think Melvin needed to get himself tossed when they ejected ZERO Asteros. Why the hell not.
Umpires should have:
1) Known the context and at least issued a warning, and probably ejected Bailey and Baker the first time Ramon was hit yesterday.
2) Instantly ejected Castellanos and whoever was managing the second time he was hit.
3) Shut down / ejected Cintron when he was yelling at Ramon, and tried to get between them before it got physicsl (as Aldrete should have as well). (Umps may not traditionally police what the teams say to each other, but if the league is serious about preventing brawls this year they could occasionally do something proactive to prevent them.)
4) Definitely ejected Cintron after the brawl. That one is just unbelievable.
And Melvin should have been out there complaining about their failure to do these things every time. You can protect your guys without turning into a Scioscia.
All easier to say in retrospect, of course, but so much could have been done to prevent what happened.
Bottom line aside from the suspension, teams know they can get under Laureano’s skin. It also happened with the “you stepped on my bat” incident last year. Yes the 14-2 HBP needs to be addressed but he shouldn’t be the one doing it and especially not that way. He needs to grow up.
Also Cintron didnt have his mask on properly. Should be suspended for that too.
Literally took his mask off to make sure Laureano could hear him.
These fuckers. I am so pissed.
Firefox doesn’t recognize the word “Eisbock” (I inadvertently froze a batch of beer I was cold-crashing), but it does knows me well enough to offer as the alternative “Bollocks”.
this is interesting. I think i like it
The Astros are gutless punks who can’t handle the fact that they suck now.
This is an interesting angle. Maybe too tin foil hatty
Speaking of possibly tin-foil hatty, it’s awfully convenient that Baker got himself run for arguing balls and strikes the inning before this all went down.
The Basseball journalist crew seem to be nearly-unanimously pushing to blame the Astros for this. Which may help.
I’ve been noticing.
Also the jokes about joe kelly getting 8 more games
also, ken arnsman points out, grossman twice and laureano 3 times.
All former astros, and grossman shouldn’t be hit righty on lefty
I was so prepared to hate everything that guy does because sport commenters are always bad, he is a Yankees fan, he is popular with sports guys, but he puts out quality material and never seems to go over the boorish line.
I’m hoping he does some lip reading today.
Big moment of pride for andeux:
I can’t help hearing the Buffalo Bill theme song. A very young Geena Davis is in the opening credit sequence.
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Yes, Geena Davis played Dabney Coleman’s production assistant in that.
I would not have remembered that theme song, which sounds like very generic 70s-80s TV music.
Notable to me is the “Talking Proud” banner in one of the shots. Now that is the iconic early 80s Buffalo jingle.
My knowledge of Buffalo is pretty limited outside of sports. That TV show, lake effect snow and Niagara Falls not being far away. I’m like the ding-dong whose primary associations with San Francisco are the Golden Gate Bridge and Rice-A-Roni.
You missed wings, but otherwise that pretty much covers it.
Even if your sum total of Buffalo knowledge came from Free Kraut you’d also know about this. Side note: what a cast!
There 18 Tim Hortons locations in Buffalo, if anyone else was wondering.
Tim Horton was playing for the Sabres when he died (driving drunk).
I don’t think I’ve ever been in one. I’ve seen people swear to how great it is. I suspect I’d think the same thing as when I’ve tried Chick-Fil-A: they get excited over this? Why? The only fast food type place I can give stars to is In-N-Out, because you do get a decently tasty and filling meal there for about $8-$9.
I think Chick-Fil-A is pretty good. I was a regular patron when I lived in Peach Bowl territory. Popeyes’ sandwich is significantly better though.
Solutions to the “infrastructure challenges”:
That’s not exactly “Big League”, is it.
But here’s part of it I don’t understand:
My italicization. What, AAA pitchers only throw 75 mph and then they magically gain that extra 20 mph when they are called up? Why wouldn’t MLB teams have contributed to funding for improved lighting long before this, including down to the low minors? It doesn’t need to be high def TV standard, but if player safety is an issue, man.
One more point.
This is a modification I would like to see at the Coliseum before next season. Bullpens on the field should have been abolished a long time ago. With the Raiders gone I think the A’s could remove several rows of seats down each foul line towards the corners, push the bullpens back into that space and fence them off from the playing field. They would lose several hundred lower-level seats but would also eliminate most delays when warmup pitches shoot past the catcher into the outfield, and also the risk of their Platinum Glove third baseman destroying his knee stumbling over the bullpen mound.
The rows of seats behind the pens are all hardened concrete from the original Coliseum construction, I imagine it would be a huge undertaking to remove them. What might be more doable would be to block off the pens with padded low fencing (think Fenway/Terrence Long but in foul territory). This would be at the cost of our fabled huge expanse of foul ground and likely unpopular with the pitchers.
Isn’t there plenty of room behind the outfield walls to create bullpens there? You could either do the two-level kind in left field or two that stretch from the left field line to center. Right might be more difficult because of the scoreboard operations (such as they are) but that could probably be dealt with. I’ve always assumed the reason they weren’t out there was something to do with the Raiders because it sure looks like there’s plenty of area to play with behind/under there.
Build them on the steps!!!!
It’s been a long time since I’ve been down there, so I don’t recall how much of the space there is available, vs how much is the structure holding up the bleachers. The idea seems plausible. Of course, no one is in any hurry to upgrade the Coliseum facility right now.
I walked through that area last season on the way to an Access member perk of my kids getting to be at the finish line for the hall of fame race. It is totally creepy in there and would take a major clean up. Maybe getting the temporary raiders junk out would make it usable space.
I’d guess a remodel out there a la what the Cubs did under the bleachers in Wrigley Field would be cost-prohibitive if it’s being amortized over only four seasons. The removal of six rows worth of concrete in Sections 126-129 and the equivalent on the opposite side didn’t strike me as that expensive but FSU suggests that’s a gross underestimate on my part.
seats where the bullpens are would offset any losses, I bet
My eldest is doing fresman orientation right now and they just said jerry garcia went there, So I looked it up and seems like an odd flex:
” Garcia attended tenth grade at Balboa High School in 1958, where he often got into trouble for skipping classes and fighting.”
Lil Miss Aces went to a small school on the campus of Narbonne HS down here. They are proud to mention that Tarantino and Bo Derek each went there. Neither graduated from there however so it didnt make much sense to me.
Bassitt hits the nail on the head.
If MLB wants <5 Astros HBPs next series, it needs to not protect that team.
I love Ramon.
Good interview.
“I regret charging him because he’s a loser” – FKing awesome quote
Possibly taglined! (We’ll see if I did it right)
League office waiting until the last possible second to make their announcements. Can you still appeal like before? Do you want to try and appeal given the short season? I don’t think I see a better spot than now to take a week off, but if you can get it down to 3-4 games maybe?
They always appeal. Joe Kelly has pitched in 5 games since the incident with the Astros. The result of his appeal may be announced today, but meanwhile Kelly was placed on the IL so he will have to serve whatever the suspension is after the IL stint.
Joe Kelly is still appealing his.
(And went on the DL today, which is kind of weird, because normally players would just drop their appeal and sit out when they can’t pitch anyway. I guess some salary is at stake.)
Dammit
doctorK’d!
hey! nice
But it could belong in any thread.
Jeez – I gotta start posting in the wrong threads again.
This is amazing. Especially the one fan who threw the last one.
yup