Last time I posted was the last time the A's won. And that was a while ago. We really shoulda been able to take 2 of 3 from the Cubs, but I was real glad we won today against the Cardinals. Holliday is on a ridiculous hot streak, its not easy to win in St. Louis, and I knew we were facing Carpenter and Wainwright the first 2 games so getting the 1 there, avoiding the sweep, and just going home with a win is nice. There's something about ending a road trip with a win and I know its not just me. I've heard the players like getting out a town with a win as they look forward to opening the new home stand too. Just "a more enjoyable flight back to Oakland" is always the phrase I hear. We play 6 games in the next 7 days, all at home, against the Reds and Pirates. The Reds are pretty good really, but the A's play well at home and the Pirates are garbage. I wanna see us take 2 of 3 from the Reds and sweep the Pirates. Those aren't high expectations yall, its what the A's are completely capable of and a home stand like that may just thrust us back into the divisional race, who knows.
Cahill, once again, is the man today. I love (or hate?) that he's the one guy in our rotation who I have full faith in right now to end a losing streak. This isnt the first time he's done it and its not the last. Brett Anderson has this capability too really and I cant wait til he's healthy and back with the team (Please Lord, heal Brett Anderson quickly and keep him healthy, Amen). Gio Gonzalez pitches tomorrow and this is great news because Gio is a completely different pitcher at home vs. on the road. His numbers: 5.44 ERA and 1.67 WHIP on the road, 2.90 ERA and 1.02 WHIP at home. Glaring problem for him on the road to be addressed, yes, but tomorrow night he's at home and he should also be on schedule to pitch on Sunday against the Pirates, also at home.
The sad news to add on to a tough road trip for the A's is how bad the timing of it is as the Rangers and Angels kept winning. We've fallen a ways out of the race, 8 games back of the Rangers, 4.5 games back of the Angels. Maybe things will improve, or maybe the end of the season will look a bit like this. Thats okay though, but if it does, I wanna see changes, starting with the medical and training staff. (Secondly, news on a new park.) And even if we dont make the playoffs this year, I still wanna be a winning team. It'd be a nice, legitimate improvement over our last two seasons where we finished 75-87 both times.
Back to good news: Kouzmanoff is on a wicked tear! Hitting .386 over his last 15 games, OPS of .828. Rajai Davis even better with an average of .410 over his last 15! Cust at .343! Pennington and Sweeney are at .295--we should be winning games! I think the wins will come and soon, very soon!
Today was a good day for me, as it should be this day every year, being Father's Day and all. I did have to work, but hearing the A's won put me in a better mood and I was looking forward to seeing my wife and son so much all day and our dinner at BJ's was great. Got my free Father's Day beer glass again! :) I need more beer though :( ... But among my fantastic gifts, the one definitely worth mentioning here, is my $25 A's gift card! Now I just need to find a game to get to. A Friday night game would work best I think. There's no cool giveaways on the calender for Fridays really, so I kinda just wanna see an interesting team. Looks like I have the Pirates (yeah, may go this Friday who knows, but Sheets is scheduled to pitch and I have seen him once this year already), White Sox, Rangers, and Rays on tap. I'm leaning Rangers or Rays.
Thanks for reading.
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