by The GM on April 21 at 11:04AM
I haven't talked about the A's for a few days now, so I want to take the time to review their progress over the last week.Since I last left off, Oakland had just won another series against Cleveland and were going to play two, two game series against Chicago and Seattle. The A's won the first game against the White Sox, but were then shut down in game two of the series.
Seattle then came in for a two game series in Oakland and took both of them. Felix Hernandez threw a complete game in the first meeting and then Carlos Silva threw 7 strong innings in the second game to wrap up the two game sweep. This marked a three game losing streak for Oakland with Kansas City coming into town.
In game one, the A's sent Chad Gaudin to the mound against undefeated Brian Bannister. The roles were reversed as Gaudin picked up the win behind some very helpful Oakland offense. The Athletics knocked around 15 hits and scored 13 runs on the way to the 13-1 victory. Emil Brown, Bobby Crosby, and Ryan Sweeney each had three hits in the game.
Game two was a little closer as Zack Greinke and Greg Smith took the mound to start the game. Neither pitcher was involved in the final decision, as the A's scored two runs in the bottom of the 7th to take the lead and then had to hold off a 9th inning rally to get the 6-5 win. Every Oakland hitter had at least one hit in the game and they finished with 16.
The third game of the series featured the season debut for phenom Luke Hochevar. He was pitching against the rookie Dana Eveland. Hochevar was as good as advertised until the bottom of the 4th inning. He then fell apart, giving up 5 two-out runs. He stayed in for the 5th inning, but was chased after giving up another two-out run. He left the game giving up 6 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks. He did strike out 5 and looked very impressive in the early going. Oakland got the win for Dana Eveland, who improved to 2-1 on the season. The Oakland bats were on fire again as they collected 11 more hits, giving them 42 for the series against one of the best pitching staffs this season.
The A's will now take on the Twins starting on Tuesday, then they will hit the road for seven divisional games against Seattle and Los Angeles. Those seven games could really help keep Oakland in the race or it could really put them back to where most everyone expected them to be this season. Only time will tell, but for now, Oakland is tied for first with the Angels at 12-8.
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