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Big-Time Athletics Fan!

Eric Surkamp: The Kamakazi of Baseball Affirms Fan Prediction!

4/24/2016

After ending their six-game winning-streak with Saturday’s loss to the Blue Jays, there was not a lot of hope coming into this game. Why you ask? After all, we enter the game tied for first with the Rangers (10-8)! The answer is simple: Eric Surkamp. This is a guy who hasn’t completed six innings yet and is rumored to be heading to Nashville. Surkamp: The guy who has a locker that really belongs to Jesse Hahn. Surkamp: The one who was allowed to go out and repeat what he did in his first two starts—this time only lasting 4.2 innings. Surkamp: Kamakazi on a suicide mission. Against this Blue Jay lineup, all he could do is fly in and explode into pieces. And that is exactly what he did.

Surkamp gave up a lead-off hit to Carrera and walked Jose Bautista. While no one scored, his fastball—which is touted to have “movement”—did not move. More than that, he kept leaving the ball up and the Jays eventually capitalized on this. In the first, Encarnacion almost capitalized immediately by taking it deep to the warning track in center field.

Ok, a little slack: By the time Surkamp pitched to Tulowitski (batter 5 in the first), it appeared that he might be gaining control as evidenced by moving the ball in and out, keeping it down, and striking out Tulo. Surkamp was less in control the first four batters, getting lucky on an Encarnacion shot to the warning track. So there was a slight glimmer of hope. But that control did not last long and neither did the hope. Surkamp went on to take the loss along with the A’s and a final score of 3-6.

Surkamp’s third inning implosion started the deep fall. While a bit of life stayed in the A’s bats throughout the game, there just wasn’t enough juice to get past Hutchison or his replacements Chavez, Cecil, Storen, and closer Osuna. As an aside, it was great to see Jesse Chavez. I did note that the blue made him look washed out—not that I’m fashion conscious. Or maybe he just left his California tan behind. Either way, it was great to see him albeit on the other side of the scoreboard.

Ok, so let’s get this over with. The Surkamp third-inning implosion was brutal. It began with a 90mph fastball being taken over the wall by Carrera. It followed with a lazy curve to Donaldson who bit into it for a double. It looked like the bleeding then might stop as Surkamp got both Bautista and Encarnacion to ground out (6-3 and 5-3 respectfully). One would imagine Surkamp to be more confident, but alas it did not show. He gave up a walk to Tulowitski; after going 3-0, the intentional walk was called. Brilliant move based on what happened next. Smoak, Pillar and Barney all singled. It wasn’t until Thole (who was in for Martin scratched prior to the game) grounded out to Coghlan for the 4-3 putout. But the damage was done—four runs scored and Khris Davis’s second inning homer was a distant memory. 4-1 Jays.

In the fourth inning, Surkamp allowed Donaldson to reach base on a walk and Jose Bautista hit his #4 homer of the year to pick up two RBI’s for a total of 16 to-date. And yet, Surkamp was allowed to go out in the 5th. While no runs were scored, he did give up a double down the left side by Pillar followed by a Pillar stolen base. Rzepczynski was brought in to salvage the fifth and did so by forcing Thole to flyout to center field. Rzepczynski, Dull and Rodriguez combined to strikeout three, walk one and give up two more hits.

Meanwhile our bats were nothing to write home about. Hutchson, Chavez, Cecil, Storen and Osuna combined for 8 strikeouts and 3 walks. But those walks didn’t help the A’s manufacture a run. The A’s had a total of 5 hits one of which should have been an error on Donaldson.

There is a batting bright spot, however. All three runs scored by the A’s were on long-balls. Khris Davis took it yard in the second, sending it over the center field wall. In similar fashion, Josh Reddick took it downtown in the 6th and Chris Coghlan in the 7th. But that was only 3 to the Blue Jays 6 and so the A’s end the day and fall to a record of 10-9.

A couple of other thoughts: Semien looked mediocre at the plate for his first two at-bats (strikeout and a 5-3 putout); he did, however, take it to the warning track in the 7th that had A’s fans holding their breath. Also in the 7th, batting Coach Darren Bush was yelling curveball to Alonso and, one could argue, help him get a piece of it that flew to deep right center. And finally, Alonso tried to steal second in the 2nd and looked pretty out of place as he somewhat slid and somewhat tumbled and rolled; after a managerial appeal by John Gibbons, the safe ruling was overturned to end the second inning.

Ok, so what’s next. There’s always tomorrow. It’s still the start of the season and we’ve been looking good. We are still above .500 and the Rangers lost. So, we head to Detroit still tied for the West. Slated to pitch: Kendall Graveman (1-1) with his 2.04 ERA and 15 strikeouts against Jordan (3-0) with a 0.00 ERA and a matching 15 strikeouts.

The “Wow” Factor and the “Day of Wow”

4/23/2016

There are days in baseball when we are “wow-ed.” I remember Troy Tulowitski and his unassisted triple play in his rookie year. That was a moment of “wow.” Even the Hall of Fame was wowed and had their request in for his glove, hat and shoes before the game was even over. Those are magical moments. This week, many of us watched as Jake Arrieta threw a no hitter, one of the few reigning Cy Young winners to have back-to-back years of no-no’s. That was a moment of “wow.” It is rare, however, when we get a full DAY of “wow” in baseball. It’s not because there aren’t enough talented players, strategic managerial moves, and just pure luck. It’s because “Wow” moments are either super-human or supernatural in nature. That day was yesterday, April 22nd, 2016. And the A’s were part of that Wow.

So what happened yesterday? Well, the White Sox turned a 9-3-2-6-2-5 triple play. You can try and picture that in your mind, or you can watch the video. Fielder flat-footed was the only piece that took away from the Wow. Todd Frazier’s fist-pumping and body bouncing into the dugout brought the Wow back.

Jacoby Ellsbury, New York Larcenist Supreme, stole home on left-handed pitcher Matt Moore on a full count. The Yankees went on to beat the Rays 6-3.

Yo, good old Yo, in center field for the Mets guns down Nick Markakis at the plate. Really Nick? You played for Baltimore. You know Yoenis’s cannon. Guess he forgot because he rounded third and tried to score and was gunned at the plate. The only thing worse than Nick’s choice to run on Cespedes was the commentator who said, “The only negative was he overthrew the cutoff man.” Really? Yo doesn’t overthrow.

Even better than Yo’s throw home was Yasiel Puig’s nabbing a ricocheted off the center field wall and throwing 310 feet ON THE FLY to third where Trevor Story’s long fly ball ended with a Justin Turner tag. Coor’s Field has been celebrating Trevor Story’s rookie bat since opening day. That had to hurt, especially given the fact that they raised the outfield wall in front of the bullpens which kept that former home-run length ball inside the yard.

So those are the moments of Wow to make it a Day of Wow on April 22nd. Oh, and there were a few other good baseball moments like Curtis Granderson and his multi-homer game which included a grand slam—both long balls off of Bud Norris. Normally that would be on MLB Tonight as a Wow moment. Sorry, Curtis. It was a rare Day of Wow and you didn’t make the cut.