My conjecture is that the Twins suck. All their doughnuts have names that sound like prostitutes. And run differential doesn’t win games, Einstein Steven Stigler, if that is your real name.
Tuesday A: Manaea vs Shoemaker
Tuesday B: Luzardo vs Dressmaker
Wednesday: Montas vs Cheesemaker
blessed are the cheesemakers
With Seattle’s loss, we are only 1 game out of first place.
First place!
Best record in AL!
Fun fact, there are only two teams with positive run differential in AL West, AL Central and NL East combined. Next to last place * and second place White Sox.
Astros and A’s are each other’s run differential.
Gaudan is the astros and A’s run differential
I wonder if thought was given to not throwing lefties in both ends of the twin bill.
I’ve always wondered if that conventional wisdom really matters.
In this case, they aren’t very similar pitchers anyway.
And actually isn’t it potentially an advantage in a doubleheader, as it makes it harder for the other team to use different hitters in the two games?
Maybe throw two righties while Kepler is down with covid.
Yeah, it strikes me as an advantage for that reason.
Quite the eventful week for Minnesota.
A friend of my wife lives in Minneapolis and has jury duty starting … next week, fortunately.
Really enjoying the AL Central defense.
It looked a little contagious there by the end, though.
ding ding ding
Donaldson’s hair…….no.
One if by land, two if by Moreland!
Wow when Moreland is locked in against a pitcher (or a team), he is really locked in.
Vince said baldeli heard 10 teams have made 85%
IIRC, that Rajai walkoff they just showed was an FK tailgate game.
Confirmed.
That looked 1000000% foul off the bat.
Waiting for Ken Arneson’s lateral wind assist metric.
Now do the 21st out.
Looks like about 2,500 in attendance. I was going to be at this game last night, big thanks to all the morons who don’t want to be vaccinated…
It definitely has that late ’70’s look, except the score is reversed.
200 grand slams in Oakland history? 4 per year? I would have guessed a higher number.
I dont like the way the flourish underneath “Minnesota” stops before the “a”.
So if Manaea goes another inning is it a complete game?
Not a CG or a shutout.
Ken and Vince haven’t gotten that memo.
Really?
Glen started to say that, and then said it was.
Yeah I blame that fucker Glen for my half-listening incorrect comment.
0 for 2, FSU.
Complete game
Shutout
It has to be.
Related, I just realized you can throw a CG shutout amd not get a quality start.
I threw a five inning (10 run rule) no-hitter in high school. Always happy for an opportunity to bring that up.
Now if Manaea had not given up any hits it would not be an official no-hitter.
Say Luzardo doesn’t give up any hits, the game is 0-0 after 7 innings, Luzardo completes the 8th inning still without giving up any hits, the A’s score in the bottom of the 8th and win 1-0. That is still not a no-hitter. However, if it’s 0-0 after 8, Luzardo completes the 9th inning and then the A’s win it 1-0 in the bottom of the 9th: bingo, no-hitter!
How about no runners through 8, twins sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly for 1-0 lead in the ninth, A’s score two in the bottom: perfect game
I guess we’ll just run Andrus out there for 162 games or until he breaks.
Machin is not an inspiring alternative though.
That shot to the ankle may change everything.
Or we will just let Elvis hobble out for another hundred and 30.
Luzardo back to the glasses. There is a non-zero chance he is neurotic.
Glasses make the fastball faster.
I’m still reeling from finding out Coco’s career HBP a few years ago.
Wow.
Hustle double!
Olson showing off the wheels this inning.
The whole team just started running. Who the hell are these guys?
Bat of Renown!
Bat of Renown!
Is the rule just that the umpire has to signal time in after a foul ball?
“After the ball is dead, play shall be resumed when the pitcher takes
his place on the pitcher’s plate with a new ball or the same ball in
his possession and the plate umpire calls “Play.” The plate umpire
shall call “Play” as soon as the pitcher takes his place on his plate
with the ball in his possession.”
From 5.12(b) in the 2019 rule book at least.
Play shall be the call the umpire shall make. He shall not call “go ahead.” “OK” is right out.
This is only when Harvey is delivering the balls to the ump though.
You don’t often think about the need to call time-in, but there you are.
Not often you get picked off of second twice in the same inning.
It’s an Ed Night with the divergent pitch counts.
it’s hard to track when I am radio only washing the dishes and making dinner.
I have been keeping a rough count
Oh, come on.
Oh for fuck’s sake.
Oy
Kaval has to wrap his hand in tinfoil amd use it as a makeshift fuse for 3 innings.
Endorsed.
If I tweet this to him will he get someone on it right away?
The A’s are 50% owners, right? They’re there through 2024 at least and they’re going to have to spend some money on this stuff.
Why torture these poor fans and players with Journey, on top of everything else.
No, Vince, a light failure after completion of the top of the 5th would not make it an official complete game.
The lightless has taken effect.
the game could have been played
Totally could and should have just played through that.
I dunno, I don’t think the TV view does it justice, LF and CF would have a hard time dealing with the big sudden change.
Outfielders at Wrigley Field have been looking at the dark side of the baseball ever since they put the lights in that place.
Sure, but not suddenly at 7:45 PM in the middle of an inning.
OTOH it was just the right amount of time to watch Jeopardy, so whatever.
You’re supposed to aim for the X instead of the trough?
post 3rd quarter at a raiders game?
That would be some impressive range from Vegas…
Machin! Great play.
I’m glad that wasn’t Jed breaking himself going after that.
I dunno about this, Bob.
Things can fall apart fast with Luzardo, so I get why they don’t want him facing the top of the order a 3rd time, but I still don’t have a ton of confidence in this bullpen either.
Luzardo needed to leave a game on a positive note. If he gives up a homer to Donaldson, so much for that.
Has Aramis caught Lou before, he looks like he has no idea where the pitches are going.
STFD!
Big strike three!
ken went through every one of his catch phrases
I assume Donaldson couldn’t beLIEVE it.
Lou! Perfect pitch right there.
Additional A’s runs would be most excellent.
Diekman?
The old back-foot slider.
Elvis…
Imagine if the A’s had a competent SS.
We do. Hes over at third.
A deadline trade for Trevor Story makes too much sense, but he’ll have ~9 million left by then so probably too rich for Fisher.
Im not sure I could survive a full season of Diekman closing.
This is pretty much exactly how I expected a Diekman save opp to go.
Never a doubt.
Smart to delay the game long enough to make that catchable.
Used every dang inch up to that well-lit left field wall.
Whoa, that was too close for comfort.
7 inning games are an abomination. 8 inning games would be bad, but better
I expect this will be a topic in the CBA negotiations. I don’t think ownership would want regular 7-inning games because they can’t sell separate admission tickets to those. Possibly 7-inning game doubleheaders will be retained only in cases where a split doubleheader can’t be done due to travel restrictions in the CBA.
do they have to cut off liquor sales?
Sheesh. My heart stopped.
Not from 830 but:
Well that’s not good.
um. did olson get the vax?
Guduan stays with the team and Weems sent down. I’m curious what they see in Guduan because keeping him on the roster has cost Tom, Bolt, and Weems at various points.
Add Kolarek to the list. Really confusing at this point, he’s basically a dead spot on the roster cause Bob only uses him in the rarest of circumstances. He didn’t even come in yesterday after Guerra let things get out of hand.
Reaching with your pitching hand to try to field a comebacker and then banging your pitching hand on the mound because you are frustrated at not fielding said comebacker. Not a great sequence of decisions, Kenta.
I just assume N. Cruz is going to get at least one of those a series.
yeah, and that slow trot was epic
Frankie may not have his best stuff today.
No help from his catcher…
Olson is seeing the ball well at the moment.
Yeah that was impressive, identified the bender quickly, stayed back, and drove it to dead center.
The opposite field “double” yesterday is one of the better pieces of hitting I’ve seen out of him in a long time.
Astudillo is like a cartoon character out there.
Love the nickname, looking at him recalls what I imagine the sailors saw, a bulbous island arising out of the sea. Tortuga.
I’m not sure you could design two less similar professional baseball players than him and Buxton. I love watching both of them, and that they are teammates.
Now Maeda knows about the Bat of Renown also.
This game is going to come down to the last possession.
why was the twins lefty up? were they gonna wait for lowrie?
I am not a wendelken fan
A lot of balls getting through Lowrie.
tell that to mets twitter
Romo on a day with the ball carrying?
against donaldson and cruz
can’t really blame romo for that hit that continues his streak of not getting the leadoff batter out.
A little concerning Bob didn’t go to Petit there when he hasn’t pitched since Friday?
He has one usable pitch but sure keep throwing those 80 mph changeup/fastballs down the middle.
I was too generous. He has no usable pitches.
I thought that was the slider, and it just didn’t work any more. Either way, he stinks now.
“That’ll do it for Sergio Romo”
If only ken, if only
Rodney got 17 appearances and survived until late May so this could still take a while.
Seriously, why was he in there in a tie game?
Us doubters are going to look foolish when Hatteberg walks this off
taps sign
Web gem.
Weren’t we taught in little league not to put your throwing hand there.
and not to sit down.
Thank goodness they got Rain Delay Robles out of there. Man. We don’t want this game going so long that we need the lights.
Shout out to the fan whose chicken noises were blasting through on the broadcast.
Can’t be mad at that catch. Also pleased with the lowrie runs
dad power needed
Elvis still does not have a double digit wRC+.
if only fischer would understand sunk costs on Davis/Andrus
Hopefully Adolis Garcia will cool off before the A’s get to the rangers
is this a 3 and a half hour game?
So far.
I am prepared to celebrate at 4:20 if the A’s cooperate.
At the pace Trivino works it may be 0420 tomorrow.
Olson’s second homer was 421′ on 4/21.
Cannot be denied!
chapman on 2nd?
I don’t like Lou throwing another inning after 25 pitches in the 9th but the alternatives aren’t thrilling either.
Where is Guerra today?
warmed up in the 4th? 3rd? then bob went to Wendelken in the 5th with suboptimal results. and now here he is
Wendelken is fine, Romo was the unforced error.
You can keep your fancy numbers, I am not a fan
its a long season and hopefully bob will stop using romo and give wendelken mop up duty where he excels
I know the bench isn’t great but not PHing for Andrus here…
LOL
good game
Wow, the A’s are living right I guess, that’s some mighty good fortune
Indeed. Nothing gets in the way of these Twins and losing games. Apparently.
I got home in time to watch 1 pitch. You’re welcome.
13 pitchers threw 361 pitches. Guerra threw 1 and gets the win.
Quote machine
pretty sure he smells no matter what.
He’s too good at this.
It’s nice to see the convergence with the *. Though maybe I don’t understand the calculations behind these playoff odds enough, but isn’t it odd how the A’s can go from 9% playoff chances to 50% in less than two weeks, even accounting for a 11 game win streak?
That does seem like too big a change.
The funny part is that Seattle’s odds have barely budged, even though they have almost the same record.
I think the fundamental concept of most WP calculators (and by extension, playoff odd calculators) are too reliant on other eras of baseball. It seems all to frequent that 99% WP calculations become losses.
I would say that the Fangraphs playoff odd have serious coverage issues, except I’m pretty sure their approach is highly Bayesian.
I had not connected these dots:
I’m surprised the ’79 A’s scored 13 runs – total.
I was also impressed that the ’73 A’s gave up 12. Ken Holtzman and Paul Lindblad both got knocked around but the Yankees rescued them by committing 5 errors. 8/12/73 box score.
Time of the game was 3:16, the fifth-longest by time of the 1973 season. The 2021 A’s have already played nine games which took more time.
[snicker]
Lineup:
1. Rickey (CF)
2. Dave Chalk (3B)
3. Jim Essian (DH)
4. Jeff Newman (1B)
5. Tony Armas (RF)
6. Mike Heath (C)
7. Mike Edwards (2B)
8. Derek Bryant (LF)
9. Rob Picciolo (SS)
Rickey went 4-8 with four singles (1-2 on steal attempts) in his sixth game in green and gold. He also laid down a sacrifice bunt (!) in the ninth, with runners on first and second and the A’s down two runs (!!). It took back-to-back singles by Chalk and Essian to bring home both runners and tie the game. Great managing.
Chalk went 2-6 with 3 walks, and hit the A’s only homer. Heath singled home the winning run in the 15th, after the Rangers intentionally walked Wayne Gross, who had pinch hit for Larry Murray eight innings earlier, after Murray had replaced Armas on defense (unclear why; Armas played the next day).
Wow, look at the temperature dropping in Hell.
Now we just need Comcast Sports Net to get on board with that.
And then pls sell it to NRAFs so I can watch ALL games.
Seattle is getting one-hit, but is somehow tied in the ninth 3-3 with the Red Sox.
Aw man, RIP Shock G.
Good Chron appreciation. Unique Oakland vibe.
In memory of Shock G, today is Digital Underground Day in Oakland. I won’t follow up, and they only made 900 four-packs, but I sure wouldn’t mind getting a taste of that Shock G Forever brew from Federation.
#900 in the
housefridge.Time to get down to it.
“The A’s have spent this entire century searching for a new home.”
Hoping this is a prelude to Fisher ostentatiously “compromising” so the politicians can claim victory and vote yes. But maybe it isn’t that and the search will continue.
If the A’s are serious about building in Oakland (which I believe) then they surely have several levels of deal-sweeteners in their pockets to be used when needed, especially at the eleventh hour. Every deal that gets done in Oakland includes concessions when the final vote comes. I hope and assume that Fisher/Kaval have someone who knows this on their team.
talk about a long walk from BART
Bullshit. The scaling appears to be off by a factor of a little more than 2.
came back to say that. I measured in google, and the furthest point from an entrance appears to be 1500-1700 feet
Whoops, my bad. That’s actually right. It threw me by putting the two home plates in different places.
(When you have them on the same scale, it’s about twice as far from Oracle Park home plate to Market Street as it is from Dodger Stadium home plate to the northernmost corner of the parking lot.)
the NE peninsula would reach the freeway, if oriented correctly using the pac bell left field gate being equivalent to the dodgers left field gate
I realized my error when I looked at the overlay again and thought, “those baseball fields are close to the same size”. It looks like there’s a bit of scaling error and Dodger Stadium does appear to be bigger, but not by a factor of 2.
Side note: For such a car-oriented place I find Dodger Stadium’s parking lot despicable. Last time I went there I stayed at the Super 8 motel at the stadium entrance off Sunset Boulevard. The motel is an overpay, but it’s convenient to the ballpark and there are plenty of restaurants a short walk down Sunset in Echo Park.
Despicable how? I went to maybe five or so Dodger games in 80s, don’t remember it as especially bad parking. They could’ve stolen flatter land to build it I suppose.
Even with a huge crowd at the Coliseum I’ve never had to wait 30+ minutes to exit. And they do directed parking so you can’t choose an advantageous spot.
Opening day at the Coliseum a few years ago they were doing directed parking, and it took us over an hour to exit.
Im my experience it’s that way every game at Dodger Stadium. I get directed parking in the sense that tailgaters can’t hog extra spaces (ahem), but if you’re not parking in a familiar spot the route out is different every time. Multiply that by 8000 drivers and you have a nightly clusterFK.
My dad would say “this is like the Dodger Stadium parking lot” whenever there was some type of chaotic situation.