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V for Valencia, V for Victory

8/11/2015

Today’s game was a game of thrones…as in Kings…as in K’s. Chris Bassitt was looking for his second win of the season, but a no-decision was the best he could do. And yet that doesn’t come close to telling the whole story.   Bassitt definitely won the game “King of the Hill” today. Pitching 6.2 innings and giving up only 3 hits and 1 earned run (which shouldn’t have been an earned run), he walked 2 and struck out TEN! Yes, 10. Most of those K’s on a nasty curve. Double-digits for King Bassitt. Maybe we need our own King’s Court! Ok, knowing the ending of this story, I’m definitely getting ahead of myself, but it sure is fun to be excited! At least in this moment!

That’s the way, uh huh, uh huh, I like it, uh huh, uh huh: Perfect song for the rally in the 8th as Phegley walked and Semien put it down the right side to advance him to 3rd. Up comes left-handed batter Billy Burns with no outs. Infielders play in, no-brainer on their part given Billy’s propensity for ground balls. There’s a runner on 3rd. First pitch is handled in true Burns style: He goes opposite way on a cutter to place the ball in short left field for an RBI hit. No dirt on THAT ball! Nice shift there infield. Our leadoff man can do it all including putting it past you—shift or no shift. Woot, woot. Exciting. 3-2 A’s with no outs!

With runners on 1st and 2nd, Coco—his orange (aka bleached) hair poking out of the back of his helmet—hits into an infield-fly situation. One out, runners still on first and second and Josh Reddick at the plate. Reddick. Solid Reddick. He doubles down the left field line, and Semien scores as Burns advances to third. But Burns gets no farther as Vogt strikes out and Lawrie lines out to center.   Man-oh-man. The life of an A’s fan as we head to the top of the 9th with a narrow 3-2 lead.

In true A’s fashion, no fan can relax, especially when Mujica is coming in. Yes, it’s true. We have no closer. Mujica’s first save yesterday does not make him a closer. And he proved that point today. Coming into the 9th he gives up a hit to Gomez and a hit to Lowrie (who looked like he was taking batting practice). Then Colby Rasmus, who is behind in the count 0-2 just waits a bit as Mujica turns it into 3-2 count quickly with ugly pitches like a splitter in the dirt. Then boom. Yes, boom! Rasmus tees off and takes one over the wall in right field with a 3 RBI homer. 4-3 Astros. I’m so, so sorry, Chris Bassitt. You had a FABULOUS game only to have it ruined by that “dreadful, dreadful bullpen” (Susan Slusser, pre-game interview, 8/9/15).

All of that said, we will not go gently into this good night! No Sir! Bottom of the 9th, Mark Cahna in for Butler (who subbed for Davis in the 7th). Base hit. Josh Phegley then gets a base hit and advances to second on a Jason Castro passed ball. Marcus Semien strikes out on a hard slider (going 1 for 4 on the day), and Billy Burns is intentionally walked. Coco then gives up the second out with a fly ball to left field.

And then he returns again. No cape. No Spiderman outfit. Just Reddick. Solid Reddick. A hero with an RBI double in the 8th comes through again with an RBI single in the 9th. A hard shot that bounced off of Luke Gregerson and was unplayable by first baseman Marwin Gonzalez. Tie score as Cahna crosses the plate and Burns advances to second. Yes, tie score and two outs in the bottom of the 9th. After the game Reddick said it was luck. Sorry, Josh; watch the video. That was a good, hard shot and a legitimate infield single.

And then Danny Valencia gets in the box: V for Valencia, V for Victory. Danny Valencia, who has been involved in 6 of the 13 runs scored by the A’s since he was picked up from Toronto, delivers with a walk-off base hit to left field. Pie. Gatorade. It’s all waiting for him as he delivers yet again for Oaktown and puts the nail in the Astros’ coffin in this 5-4 win.

That said, none of this should take away from Houston’s efforts today. Shortstop Correa, all of 20, is impressive. A double that tied the game was had on a slider contacted up in the zone. Pitcher Mike Fiers held Oakland to just 1 run on five hits as he struck out 4 batters with varied pitches: Splitter, fast ball, curve. But the real Ace of the day is Chris Bassitt who, in just five innings, gave up only 1 hit all the while striking out 9 and retiring 11 in a row. It was only when Correa doubled on a slider he left up in the zone in the 6th that got him rattled and led to a Young visit to the mound.

And, unfortunately, Jose Altuve continues his O.co hitting streak with hits in 20 straight games in Oakland. But hey, at least Phegley gunned him stealing in the 8th.

Tonight the A’s hop on a plane and head to Toronto. They will arrive at approximately 2:30am and play an evening game. Let’s hope they all sleep well on the plane so we can make Toronto work for a living!

Probable starters for tomorrow: Kendall Graveman taking on right-handed pitcher Drew Hutchison in Toronto for a 4:07 start.

A's seek to dominate Astros and end Altuve hitting streak!

8/9/2015

Eclectic, pre-game rambling...Here we go:

1.    I am a fan of José Altuve—aka Gigante. He's 5’5” in the press book (which no doubt means 5’4” or even 5’3”), and he defies the strength gods with his compact power and control. Magnificent. Great defensive range. Consistent bat with a current batting average of .298, 12th best in the American League, dropping from 10th yesterday when Manny Machado went 4 for 5 and Ian Kinsler went 3 for 4. We do need to hold Altuve hitless today to stop his 19 game hitting-streak here at O.co. Fan or no fan, we just can’t let José continue to do that to us!

2.    Danny Valencia: Starts off Saturday with a 278 foot double that scores two and draws first blood. This, after taking Dallas Keuchel deep Friday night as he went 2-3 with an RBI and a walk. Saturday: His second multi-hit game. Him. His bat. Nice. Danny: You're keeping baseball fun. [As an aside, how nice for Toronto that life is so good and their roster is so deep that they had to DFA Valencia. Even nicer is the fact that we got him for a mere $20,000 claim fee. If you haven’t already read it, see more Danny details in Jeremy Koo’s comprehensive article from August 3rd.]

3.    Vogt: Yes, I believe in Stephen Vogt, yet his bat is F-R-U-S-T-R-A-T-I-N-G! I know he hit a homer Thursday night, his 15th, but that was the 2nd in 30 games. Yesterday: Pop-up to second, swinging strikeout, liner to left. Zilch. Nada. Didn’t even make the ‘Stros work for it. Vogt is batting .136 in the last 7 games, .120 in the last 15 and .165 in the last 30. I know we are supposed to give catchers some slack. They work hard behind the plate. Get tired—beat up even. Lots of wear and tear. If they bat .270, most people are happy. However, Vogt going .165 in 30 games does NOT make for happy! Everything Bagel needs to find a way to schmear that red-stitched, 9 inch leather all over the field! [I know, I know, he has 60 RBI’s, and OBP of .337 and 15 doubles. But imagine what that would be if he was batting .285 or .290! And either way, the last 30 days of batting just HAS to reverse and climb. Just proves I DO believe in Stephen Vogt with these expectations!]

[And don’t even get me started on Country Breakfast-Billy Butler and his .239 BA (Eric Sogard: .246); SLG of.366 (Sogard: .283); and an OBP of only .306 (Sogard: .291 though career to-date is .295). As a second aside: I’m using Sogard because I think people don’t give him his due. Sometime I’m going to make a case for him in writing and OBP is a start.]

4.    Pitching: There’s a lot to be said for our starting pitching right now (although I agree with Duncan Morrow that Jesse Chavez needs to be in the pen in 2016). Collectively in this series we’ve amassed (sarcasm) a whopping 1.17 ERA on 3 earned runs. Closing out the series today is Chris Bassitt who is going for his second consecutive win. In six starts this season, Bassitt has a WHIP of 1.09 and an ERA of 2.64. His last start against Baltimore on Tuesday included 7 innings of shutout ball with 2 walks and 7 strikeouts for his first win of the season. Repeat performance, please, Chris!

5.    Finally, since this is an eclectic rambling, maybe we could end the “Cahna” chants and get something going with Bassitt. That Bassitt name evokes a lot of possibilities, and I’m really sick of hearing the “Cahna get a hit” type chants. [And for the record, the PEEEEETS-ZAAAaa guy STILL drives me nuts!]