The A's so far this season have been consistently inconsistent as the saying goes, trudging along to a 16 and 14 record after 30 games, lingering in the mix of the indecisive AL West, which as of this moment sees Texas in front by one half a game, while both the Angels and Mariners are slumping below the .500 mark. In an odd twist, the A's actually are playing better on the road than at the "friendly confines" of McAfee Coliseum, with records of 9-5 on the road, and 7-9 at home. For those of us season ticket holders, we have been forced to see the on again off again offense, and I'm fairly sure we've seen an even number of wins and losses on the early campaign.This trend continued yesterday and today, as the A's offense never got going on a cold night Friday, seeing them defeated at the hands of the lowly Devil Rays, 3-1, erasing the benefits of a well pitched game by sophomore hurler Joe Blanton. Well... it was a good game pitched after the first, when Blanton stumbled to a 2-0 deficit, the eventual margin of victory. Today's contest, only slightly warmer despite the 1:05 start time, saw the A's prevail in quasi-heroic fashion in the bottom of the 9th to take the game 3-2. I wish I could say that there were real heroics and fireworks with bang-bang plays and a walk-off home run, but there was none of that. Instead, we were treated to an A's hitter trotting to first on a 3-1 count, thinking he'd earned a free walk, we suffered through a baserunning double play gaffe in the bottom of the 9th, and only came away victorious after the opposing third baseman channeled Bill Buckner from the 1986 World Series, and booted the ball, allowing the winning run to score and avoiding extra innings.
So - again - a loss and a win. And the offense didn't manage to score more than 4 runs in the two combined games, seeing good pitching on both sides. But if the team is matching pound for pound with the likes of Tampa Bay, they won't live up to their potential and be expected to challenge the Red Sox, Yankees, White Sox or others for the pennant this year. It's time to warm up. We appreciate today's win, but you can't sit around and wait for the other team to hand it to you every game.
Listening to ''Marrakech (Revolution Mix)'', by ATB (Play Count: 7)