A's Bats Look HOT

Before we begin. He was out. Jerry Meals blew it. Terrible. Horrific. But that's baseball.



I've watched it many many times. It was so close, I totally understand what Meals saw in the 19th inning. However, on that play, where Lugo is dead to rights, almost giving himself up, I think you have to give McKenry the benefit of the doubt. If you are going to have either team win that game, it better be because they earned it, not because you think a player missed a dead to rights tag. In the end, it's an unfortunate ending to a brilliantly played game. Kudos to both teams.

Oh, yes, the A's won too! And they won in style.

Athletics Survive Road Trip

When you have an 18-35 record on the road, every single victory is sweet, so when a team returns home with a record of 2-3, you cling to it as a small victory, especially when one of those wins comes in Yankee stadium. They hadn't won in 11 tries there, so to finally get one felt pretty good.

Great play from the Yankees to get Sogard at the plate:


If you missed the MLB.com recap from yesterday:

The good news: "The A's are batting .308 as a team since the All-Star break."

The bad news: "But they went 2-3 on this road trip, with the losses resulting in a combined 22 earned runs in just 11 1/3 innings from their starters."

LINK to the recap

Kickball.... Greatest Sport Ever?

Short answer: Yes. OK, well, if we're in the category of games you mastered as a third grader... then absolutely yes.



I thought I would regale you all with tales of The Schoolyard Bullies, the best pink wearing kickball team Oakland has ever seen.

Last night, down 3-2, the Bullies had their all-star, Sam, at the plate with runners on first and second. Sam kicked a ball down the first base line, and though she was out on the peg, the runner on first, Christo, never stopped running, and dove in head first for the go ahead run.

In the bottom of the fourth frame, the anonymous evil team from the other dugout led off with a triple. He was unable to score on a bunt single, but then crashed on contact on the next bunt attempt. On a brilliant catlike play by Shat, he was thrown out at the plate.

Now, with runners on first and second and only one out, there was a deep drive to right center. Fortunately, Cap'n Rob tracked it down, and had the awareness to double the runner off second, resulting in yet another win for the Bullies.

Now that I've bored you to tears, here are a couple links that I found pretty awesome.

Life in San Francisco

How cool was teal?

Oh yeah, and the A's are doing well...

Athletics beat Angels as We Celebrate the 80s

Sooooo, there was that All-Star break. Then the A's had some games against the Angels. Believe it or not, they won three of four of them. And, well.... that's just fine. Your Oakland Athletics now sit at 42-54, 13 games behind that first place Rangers, 7 games behind the Angels, and a game and a half behind the freefalling Mariners.

Brandon McCarthy beat Dan Haren Friday night, then they stumbled against Jered Weaver, but were able to eke out a win in game two of the double header. Then, the icing on the cake, 8 runs in the first Sunday afternoon to destroy Joel Pinero. Oh yeah, then Gio Gonzalez pitched a gem to further solidify himself has one of the best pitchers in the AL.

All-Star Break Update: Prophet or Not?

We're more than half way through the 2011 MLB season. Hard to believe? Yes. Slightly depressing? Definitely. Starting to chafe? You have no idea.

Anywho, the All-Star break is good for a lot of things. It's a chance for players to rest mentally and physically, as well as catch up with their families and friends. For the outside spectator, it's a good opportunity to look back on the first half, see how far we've come, and look toward the future and all that lies ahead.

Before the season started Eric and I made some bold predictions as to how the season would pan out. In addition to major award winners, we picked our division winners and eventual World Series Champions. Some predictions are looking pretty good (Adrian Gonzalez for AL MVP), while others are losing steam (Oakland A's for World Series Champions).

We want to take this opportunity to look back on our picks, reward ourselves for our prophetic foresight, and if need be, modify those prophesies for the second half. For if Harold Camping taught us anything, it's that if your predictions don't come true, make a new prediction.

San Francisco Giants Mid-Season Update

Consider two headlines:

"Despite Struggling, Giants Winning"
"Despite Winning, Giants Struggling"

Which one is more accurate?

The Giants reach the All Star Break 12 games over .500 and 3 games ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks atop the NL West.

The Giants also reach the All Star Break with its best player out for the season with a devastating injury. Their $11 million first baseman has homered in only 5 of his first 90 games. According to John Shea, the 2011 Giants have provided the lowest amount of run support since the 1902 New York Giants. And that team finished 53.5 games out of first place. Up until last week, the Giants had gone the entire 2011 season without scoring more than 5 runs in a home game. Then they scored 6. According to Mike Krukow (who can count nano-seconds in his head), the 2011 Giants are the first team in franchise history to go an entire first half without  scoring more than 6 runs in a home game.

And yet, they are 28-16 at home this season.

So which is it? Are you amazed that in spite of the injuries and horrendous offense, the Giant are still in first place? Or are you amazed that in spite of incredible pitching and clutch hitting, the Giants still look like a team that could go out and lose 15 of its first 20 after the break?

As Giants announcer Duane Kuiper said after a walk-off win on April 9th, "I'm having a hard time explaining this one."

Oakland Athletics Midseason Report

It's been a rough go through 92 games for YOUR 2011 Oakland Athletics. Yes, I know I predicted them to win it all. I may have been wrong. I admit that now. I'm still attending games the rest of this season. I hope you all do too.

This team is still exciting. They're still in this thing in every game they play. They just can't always gets hits, which hurts, more often than not. However, when a kid like Guillermo Moscoso can pitch a two-hitter, you know you have a team on the verge of greatness. 2012 will be our year! Of course, there are still 70 games of 2011 yet, and it's not time to throw in the towel quite yet. Here's what we've seen so far.

Lincecum and the All-Star Game

We here at We're In This Thing would like to apologize for the lack of content lately. The A's have been disappointing me, which has not led to a bevy of content. I don't know Frankie's excuse. Something about having a life and a job or something. Anyway.

A lot has been made about the selection of Tim Lincecum as an All-Star this season. Let's look at his stats against a couple of the snubs, and you try to guess which is which:

A) 6-2, 3.30, 111 K
B) 6-7, 3.14, 126 K
C) 10-2, 2.54, 103 K