The A’s just went on a nine-game swing through the east coast, playing Baltimore, Boston, and Tampa Bay. They lost two out of three to the Orioles, but took two out of three from the Red Sox and Rays. A few thoughts on the trip as a whole:

* Brandon Inge became an A in the middle of this road trip and has started at third base every game since joining the team. He’s not that good of a hitter, but a good fielder with some veteran presence is valuable, and I think the third base shuffling stops now and for the rest of the season. I’d much rather put a guy with experience out there than watch failed converted catchers and waiver pickups all season.
* Tyson Ross and Tommy Milone – ugh. Two of the four losses came in games that saw Ross and Milone get shelled. Milone gave up four runs in the first inning of the final game of the trip but settled down and the A’s somehow busted out offensively to get him the win. I’m less worried about Milone than I am about Ross. Send Tyson back to AAA and bring Brad Peacock up?
* Another young starter, Jarrod Parker, was again impressive in his start against the Red Sox at Fenway. He’s got swing-and-miss stuff and it’s fun to watch him pitch.
* Coco Crisp was finally placed on the DL, which I’m glad to see. He’s not that great when he’s 100%, so seeing him run out there at less than that was brutal. Get well, come back, and play a little so then maybe we can trade you!
* Daric Barton has played well in the recent games he started, going 4-for-8 with two walks. But he is going to have to hit, hit, and hit some more to live down that third strike he watched down the middle with the bases loaded in Boston. That got the Twitter A’s fans all riled up and they were still talking about it over a week later.
* Jonny Gomes had a great series in Tampa, but should that equal more playing time for him? I hope not. Micheal Taylor is here and Michael Taylor should play. Keep Gomes as a bat off the bench versus lefty pitchers.

The A’s are off today, then will take on the Blue Jays and the Tigers in a six-game homestand. Go A’s!!

What a great day to decide to watch an A’s game in its entirety. Late start times and bad timing meant I hadn’t watched a full A’s game in over a week, but I was able to catch all 14 innings of today’s crazy game with the White Sox.

Of course, being that it was a weekday afternoon game, there was no A’s broadcast to watch. Instead I had to fire up the White Sox feed on MLB.tv, and you know what that means – Hawk Harrelson.

Back-to-back two-out RBI by Yoenis Cespedes and Josh Reddick in the 7th inning brought out the sadness in Hawk’s voice. But, he was in expected form when the White Sox tied the game in the 9th on Paul Konerko’s 400th career home run, a solo shot to left off Grant Balfour that tied the game at two. “Hell yes!!!!!” he screamed. Ugh.

So onto extra innings we went. The A’s would get a game-saving play in the 13th when Gordon Beckham tried to score from first on a double down the left field line and Cliff Pennington and Eric Sogard nailed him at the plate with a great relay throw. This would be crucial as the A’s went down in order in the bottom of the inning.

In the 14th, Hawk got excited again as Alexi Ramirez doubled home a pair of runs. “Don’t stop now boys!” he urged, but luckily for the A’s they did stop at two runs and the game was still in reach. Oh, it certainly didn’t feel like it as these are the A’s, but with Cespedes due up third in the bottom of the inning, there was a glimmer of hope.

Sogard struck out to start the inning – “He gone!” After Reddick singled and Cespedes came up to bat, I was thinking home run. Everyone in the O.co was thinking home run. Even Hawk and his broadcast partner were talking about it, so it almost wasn’t a surprise when Cespedes launched one into the left field bleachers to tie the game at 4-4. Don’t stop now boys! And they didn’t. Seth Smith and Kurt Suzuki both singled, and then Kila Ka’aihue blooped one into no man’s land in left to score Smith and give the A’s the win.

And in all the excitement of a come-from-behind walkoff win, it’s easy for Jarrod Parker’s A’s debut to get overlooked, but he pitched well, allowing just one run in six innings, striking out five and walking none.

So after 20 games, the A’s stand out .500. Their first east coast road trip is coming up next. Go A’s!

Well they almost didn’t pull it off as they needed an extra innings comeback in the last game, but the A’s managed to take two out of three from the visiting Royals for their first series win of the season.

In Monday’s game, Tom Milone threw eight innings of shutout ball en route to a 1-0 A’s victory. Not to take anything away from the young lefty, but he had a lot of help from his defense, as well as the Royals running themselves out of innings. Kurt Suzuki gunned down a runner stealing and then Milone picked off a runner at first the very next play. But the one for the highlight reel occurred in the first inning, when right fielder Josh Reddick threw an absolute laser to third to nail the speedy Jason Bourgeois who had tried to tag up and take the base on a fly out. Josh Donaldson made a nice pick at third and blocked the bag like a catcher.

The following night was a dreary day weather-wise and a dreary game for the A’s. After a rain delay, the A’s and Royals played through drizzle and the A’s only managed one hit. The Royals won 3-0 in a rain-shortened eight-inning game.

Wednesday’s rubber match saw the A’s score five runs without getting a hit with a runner in scoring position. Talk about an A’s win! First there was Yoenis Cespedes stealing third base and then scoring as the catcher made an errant throw to third. Then, Jonny Gomes homered with Cespedes on first. Finally, in the bottom of the 12th down by one run, Seth Smith scored on a Coco Crisp groundout and Gomes got plunked by Royals closer Jonathan Broxton with the bases loaded to drive in the winning run.

It may not have been pretty but the A’s will take them any way they can.

Next it’s on the road to face the Mariners, and the A’s get to face Felix Hernandez for the third time already this season. That just doesn’t seem fair. Oh well… go A’s…

Well the two games in Oakland this weekend didn’t go as well as I’d hoped, but man, can Yoenis Cespedes hit for some power. The homer he hit on Friday night was absolutely crushed, and the one he hit on Saturday was a no-doubter as well. Let’s watch the Friday night bomb, over and over again.

Sadly, the A’s couldn’t turn some of that excitement into wins. Even when Cespedes hit the three-run homer on Saturday to put the A’s within a run, the rest of the A’s after that went down in order. We’re going to need more than just Cespedes to drive in some runs.

Neither Brandon McCarthy or Bartolo Colon were on their games this weekend, but the defense behind them was pretty craptacular. There were bad reads, wild throws, and mishandled transfers. One thing I will say though is that the A’s sure look like they are trying. It was obvious on Friday night that Josh Reddick wanted so badly to make some good plays. The way he airmailed the throw trying to nail a runner at first base just came across as, “OMG, look how hard I can throw it!” I’m hopeful that the A’s will be able to get some it under control and get better on defense, because they can’t afford to make many mistakes.

It seems like we’ve been playing the Mariners forever, and I’ll be glad to tune in to some A’s games against another opponent for a few days. Tom Milone makes his first A’s start Monday against the Royals and I’m looking forward to it. Let’s see if the A’s can win a game somewhere other than Tokyo.

Go A’s!

Well I managed to get up for the second game, which started an hour earlier than the previous day’s game. Why they did this, I have know idea, but I got out of bed and turned on the TV just in time to see Bartolo Colon’s first pitch.

Colon’s first pitch, and the 85 after that, were excellent – minus the Justin Smoak home run. This game just about put me back to sleep for the first 6 innings as not much was happening offensively on either side. I admit – I thought it was over when Smoak hit one out off Colon and it was 1-0 M’s going into he bottom of the 7th.

But then it happened. And I don’t know if it was my tiredness or the Mariners announcers’ lack of enthusiasm, but I kind of thought I was dreaming it at first. With Coco Crisp on first and the A’s down by one, Yoenis Cespedes launched a 2-run homer to left to give the A’s a 2-1 lead. It was a breaking pitch much like the one he hit for a double the night before. I think he’ll be erratic and streaky at times, but I’m not too worried about Cespedes adjusting to major league pitching after watching these two games.

Then after a pitching change, Josh Reddick went yard to make it 3-1. Johnny Gomes tacked on another solo shot and Grant Balfour nailed down the save to give the A’s a 4-1 victory and make the flight back to the U.S. a little more enjoyable.

Now comes the weird part – after two “real” games, the A’s will have to play a few more “fake” games before getting back to the real ones. Wake me up when the regular season starts up again. I need the sleep.

Go A’s…