The A’s need to learn that a baseball game is traditionally nine innings, not ten.
That didn’t seem to matter to the green and gold on the South Side, as the A’s managed to steal two out of three games, that all needed extras to be resolved.
Game one featured dominating pitching performances by Dallas Braden and Mark Buehrle. It appeared the A’s would go down 1-0 without a fight, but an Andy LaRoche double and Juan Pierre error pushed across a ninth inning run and gave the A’s a chance in the tenth.
Kurt Suzuki then launched his first home run of the year and the Fuentes closed out the White Sox in the bottom of the tenth for the save.
Game two featured shakier pitching from Trevor Cahill. The newly minted long-term Athletic wobbled through the first two innings, yielding four runs. The A’s rallied and with a Kevin Kouzmanoff two-run homer the A’s nursed themselves to a 5-4 lead, which was promptly surrendered by the bullpen. Both teams matched zeroes until the bottom of the tenth, where Alexei Ramirez launched his second home run of the game to give the Sox a 6-5 walk-off victory.
Game three seemed to be a sure loss for the A’s, who’s offensive deficiencies put them in a 4-1 hole heading to the top of the ninth. Their only run was courtesy of a Hideki Matsui home run, who appears to be warming up to the season.
The A’s mounted a furious comeback, capped by a two out bases loaded single by Cliff Pennington to knot the game at four apiece. The A’s mustered three more runs off of Matt Thornton in the tenth and Fuentes easily shut down the White Sox for his fifth save in five chances, a 7-4 win and a road series victory.
Offense
The offense seems finally to be coming round after scoring a respectable fourteen runs in the three games. Matsui batted 5-13 with a home run and three RBI’s in the series. Daric Barton was 5-9 and had a career high four hits in Tuesday’s loss.
David DeJesus is the one A’s player lagging behind the rest, as he batted 2-13 and seemed to find a way to quash every A’s rally he was in the middle of. Conor Jackson continued to be affective and should look to get more playing time along with Ryan Sweeney, if DeJesus continues to struggle.
Defense
The defense in games one and two was solid, but hit a bit of a rough patch in the Wednesday finale. Brett Anderson and Kouzmanoff committed errors that led to unearned runs. Conor Jackson found himself at third base for the end of the game after Kouzmanoff had been substituted. Luckily Jackson managed to avoid the ball while in the field.
Starting Pitching
Solid, but not as spectacular. Dallas Braden was the best giving up only a solo home run in six innings. Trevor Cahill struggled and failed to finish five innings, while Brett Anderson pitched through a gritty 5.2 innings, yielding three runs, two earned.
Relief Pitching
Definitely their best series of the year. Four shutout innings on Monday, two runs in 5.1 innings on Tuesday, and a single unearned run through 3.1 Wednesday. Fuentes pitched two innings and got a pair of saves. Tyson Ross pitched a dominating three shutout innings on Monday and received the win for his troubles. Grant Balfour pitched bottom of the ninth in the finale and was rewarded with his first win as an Oakland A.
Managing
No apparent blunders for Bob Geren and company. Compared to Ozzie Guillen’s use of the White Sox’ “bullpen,” Geren looks like a manager savant, but maybe its a bit too early to declare him manager of the year.
The A’s played well in crunch time and managed to snatch two victories from the jaws of defeat. After a successful 5-4 road trip, the A’s return home to the generous confines of Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum to take on the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox.
Let’s hope their luck continues.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com