Game #5: A's 5, Mariners 0
April 7, 2006 | A's @ Seattle
Good golly! How I wish I was there! Shutout win with thrills galore. Where to begin?
Good golly! How I wish I was there! Shutout win with thrills galore. Where to begin?
Joe Blanton's excellent outing: 8 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO, 0 HR, 98 pitches-68 strikes, 0.00 ERA. How Joey is underestimated. The best start we've seen thus far comes from our #5 pitcher. Joey's the first A's starter to get a W this season, by the way. Harden and Haren each got a no decision while Zito and Loaiza each racked up a loss.- And he did it against teenage phenom Felix Hernandez. I heard on 1550 AM that Seattle is going to take care of Felix, make sure he stays in the big leagues for at least 10 years. I'm glad they said that. For me, really young athletes like Felix belong to the sport, not only the team that develops him. Please keep this young man healthy, don't overuse or abuse him, and let's all enjoy watching him pitch for the next decade or more. So Felix gave up a run and exited the game after five innings and 100 pitches.
- Milton Bradley...! You saw it, I only heard it on the radio. Top of the 6th, two outs, bases loaded with Kendall on first, Bradley on second, and Thomas on third. Swisher singles to center and Thomas practically walks home. Bradley's expected to follow, but he misses touching third base. He doubles back, but Kendall's about there. Bradley gets tagged. As Macha said afterwards, "I'm glad he went back and touched it, otherwise, we wouldn't have scored the run we did."
- Duchscherer has pitched a total of four innings in three games and his ERA remains at 0.00.
posted by blank book at 9:54 PM
5 Comments:
I admire Blanton because of his huge gut. He's the best "regular guy" pictcher since Rod Beck was at his prime. Blanton give all of us gas pumping normal guys hope that we can still participate in sports.
To call Swisher's hit a "single" is clearly an understatement. It was off the wall on the fly. Maybe Bradley's gaffe was the first sign of why both the Indians and the Dodgers were willing to let go of such potential.
Al, I stand corrected. Thank you!
Actually, you can't be corrected. The official scorer was forced to call it a single because no runner advanced more than one base safely, due to Bradley's base-running faux paux. This is one of those lovable quirks of baseball ... usually reflected by commenting on a little dribbler that has eyes and sneaks through the infield that "It'll look like a line drive in the boxscore."
It was still a rope off the wall that might have scored three (since there were two outs and Kendall, who was on first, has good speed).
But if 1550 AM didn't relay correctly how hard the ball was hit, they were the ones guilty of the understatement.
Yours is a must-read blog. Kudoes.
Al, you weren't the only one to call me on this. I'll come clean. While listening on the radio, I was trying to understand what Bradley was doing. I didn't pay attention to how hard Swisher hit the ball nor to where it went. Mea culpa -- I'm sure KYCY 1550 AM did a good job. I looked this detail up later, exposing the "quirk" of this hit being recorded as a single when it could've easily been a double. But if that's why they play the games, that's why I feel compelled to write these things down. Thanks again!
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