Latest / The House Always Wins Media Network | A’s Baseball Podcasts / Small Mistakes, Big Consequences: A's Lose Series to MLB's Hottest Team

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Small Mistakes, Big Consequences: A's Lose Series to MLB's Hottest Team · The House Always Wins Media Network | A’s Baseball Podcasts

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4 games against the hottest team in baseball had the expected
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results for the Athletics. We won 1,
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lost 3, and the same problems appeared
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all series. We were in the entire series, in every
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game. We were in every game, and the little things cost
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us big. Should Kotze finally get his pink slip?
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We'll talk about it. Fisher and Forss saying
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no, so allow me to retort tonight on The Habit Hunter.
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Welcome, privet comrades, aloha, A's faithful.
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Welcome to the Habit Hunter A's Podcast in the House Always Wins Media Network.
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I'm Tim Burns, you can call me Hobbs. I'm a sportswriter that
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covers the athletics for the guys at Mid Valley Sports out of Los Angeles,
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where I cover the amazing A's as well as the entire NFL desk.
1:19
And that's coming up here in about, what, a week? Can't wait.
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You can find me at Sactown A's Fans for Life on X, and this
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The Habit Hunter podcast. Habit Hunter gives you an old-school analysis
1:31
at the conclusion of each series, good or bad. We identify problems
1:36
ace players might be developing and look for possible solutions. We talk about them,
1:39
we argue about them, we look for answers, we toss them in the atmosphere,
1:43
see what sticks. We analyze moves the front office and manager make,
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and we hawk both of them just to make sure they're doing some improving.
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We give our team flowers when they shred, and you know, they still have their
1:55
moments. Remember to give the show a like. It gives me all warm
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and fuzzy inside. It gets me going all warm and fuzzies. I know everyone asks
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that, but it keeps the show in the algorithm and it does us some justice.
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We have over 580 subscribers now as a network, so make sure
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to subscribe and check out all the shows. Uh, Booney, our top dog,
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has built an entire network of shows created by Ace fanatics from
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Brooklyn to the Bay Area. Shows that bring knowledge and
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true heart. If we're still here at this point of the year Uh,
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we're the true Rays fans, so go surf the network, get your Philly
2:29
Rays content. We have an entire 4-game series to
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go through, so I'm likely not going to do much of a roll call,
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maybe a couple guys, but, uh, we need to hop into this. This is going
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to be— it's a 4-game series. So the series opener
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was a good start for Jack Perkins, our starter. Unfortunately, he takes
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the loss in this game, in the opener, 4-2, despite some pretty good trends in
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his pitching, at least I felt. Uh, his last win,
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April 18th. That's now 22 starts ago.
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Now he starts off kind of like he usually does. He starts the game
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on a 3-0 count, walks, uh, Masataka Yoshida,
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and you're going to hear his name a lot in this
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series. And, uh, that's a habit for Perk,
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starting off with issues to start an inning. He gets behind in the
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count a lot and he tends to get people on board. Uh, he set down
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the next 3 in order, and he had all of them behind in the count,
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down 0-2. And that, that he looked good. He got him behind,
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and he was pitching the pitches he wanted. So I liked it. Bottom of the
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first, outstanding. We did this twice in this series.
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Uh, Tyler Soderstrom homered on the first pitch he sees,
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and I'm thinking, sweet, right? Sweet.
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Unfortunately, I think that— I'll check in a a little while,
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but I think that was his only hit the entire series. Uh, Colby Thomas
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singles too, uh, with 2 outs. He's left out there, but that's a good start
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for the A's, to be honest. In the second, uh, Perk in the second,
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nice 1-2-3 inning, 12 pitches. There's a lot of those
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in this series, and we're going to talk about the starters. The starters,
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their ERA 4 games was under 3. We'll talk about it.
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But in the bottom half, McNeil singles And then Bolte comes
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up, and I don't know, I was so high on this guy. Uh,
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swings at 3 pitches, all of them were not even close,
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and it goes fielder's choice. And it was just like, what are you swinging at?
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Everything. What, what is your problem? Um, Alica Williams singles,
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uh, so it's first and second. Uh, Bolte, um,
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he got— no, McNeil got thrown out, uh, third trying to steal.
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I didn't like that decision. Uh, with 2 on and 1 out.
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Um, but you know, okay, at least they were being aggressive,
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you know. That's, that's all I could say about that. Uh, Perkins,
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he started the 3rd, um, going to 3-0 in the count. The first
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batter, again, he walked him. Uh, Andrew Monasterio, that guy
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bugged us all game, all series, to be honest. Uh,
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Perk, he gets Connor Wong to hit into a double play. We get quite
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a few of those in this series. We're going to talk about that too.
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Uh, fly out Yoshida and done deal. 12 pitches
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for Perk in that inning, so he was cruising. You know, he had,
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he had some traffic but not too bad. At the plate for
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the A's, Sodi walks, but Hein, he went through like a really useless
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stage. He had another 3-pitch strikeout, so that was back-to-back 3-pitch strikeouts.
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Thomas, he's a mess. He's a mess.
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Uh, he strikes out too. Uh, you're going into the 4th.
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Perkins oozes constantly to start an inning.
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Another, you know, first it's 3-0 count, then it's 3-0 count. He hits Curtis Meade
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to start the 4th. Now Meade was later X-rayed and he
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broke his hand or his wrist and he's on IL indefinitely.
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So that was a, that was a big hit for Perk. Wilson Contreras
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strikes out, a couple flyouts. It was the 3rd 12-pitch inning in
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a row, so He looked pretty consistent.
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Uh, Bolte, he reaches on a Monasterio fielding error, but nothing
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comes of it. Uh, let's see, 5th inning,
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both, both sides, both squads, they went 1, 2, 3.
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Perk, he was getting more efficient, he went 1, 2, 3 in 7 pitches.
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Uh, A's went down 1, 2, 3 unfortunately. Uh, Lawdog,
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Wilson, they both struck out. Uh, the 6th, Connor Wong
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opens with a double on Perkins. And that
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was the 4th— that 4th time in 6
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innings that they led off the inning getting on base.
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And for some reason, Perk is shaky with the first batter. I don't know why.
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You know, maybe he's nervous. Maybe he's a little tight. Who knows? But— excuse
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me. He got ground out, ground out. Wong ended up on
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3rd. Now there was a mound visit here and
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it was just Haim, but I liked it. It kept Perk on the same page.
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Um, Perk does walk Contreras on 4 pitches. Um,
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and, uh, pitching coach Dan Hutz pulled him for Jose Suarez.
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They pulled him at 69 pitches, 41 strikes,
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and 1 hit. And I did think it was too soon.
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Very rarely are you going to hear me say that. I, I like erring on
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the side of caution. Um, but this decision
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is going to be— I'm not going to think it— say it's a huge mistake,
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but it did look— it's one of the first times where I agree with
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some of the guys in the network. It looked predetermined. It almost looked like,
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okay, he's done that. And you know what, I've been
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propping up Suarez on the last show, been pitching
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well. And it was perfectly understandable for
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Cotton Huggs to put him in. I even gave
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him a nickname. I gave him Chubby Bunny. Well, Chubby Bunny walks
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Will You or Bray You, loads the bases, and grand
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freaking slam. You know what,
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it was by some dude I never heard of, Raffaello Donatello,
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whatever, Master Splinter. Center. Who cares?
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We're down 4-1. And it's
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funny, I was, I was flipping through Instagram and I, and I saw on Instagram
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where, um, it showed Chris Carey from last year and
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it showed him doing a Jenny where— not doing Jenny,
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but doing a Jenny where he thinks it's
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a foul ball and it's a home run. So I saw that, I was
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like, oh no, maybe that's where she learned it, who knows. Um,
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but he basically geeked
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over it. He was so happy with a grand slam. I mean, he, he went
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on and on. And as a 3— group of 3— at
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supporting— I mean, they're probably all 3 great people,
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but at supporting the team that they work for and
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trying to keep A's fans involved and interested
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and wanting to hear more and watch the game more even though we're getting freaking
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spanked constantly. They're the worst.
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They're the worst in baseball. Very amateur.
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So then it's a double by Caleb Durbin before a fly out,
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Jaren Duran, but it's still 4-1 deficit. Bottom of
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the 6th though, Jonah Heim homers, which is fantastic.
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He slammed this one. .419, 103.5.
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Off the bat. Fantastic. But don't get
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it twisted, he was struggling at the plate all day, and we're going to go
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over that. Now, Colby Thomas, what does he do? He strikes out
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again. He strikes out again.
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Tommy Wise grounds out on one pitch.
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McNeil grounds out on one pitch, and they're down 4-2.
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It's like, even when we get something,
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it It seems like that's all we're getting, just that one run. We did,
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we, we did put a string together today, which was kind of nice,
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but overall not good. In the 7th, Elvis Alvarado comes in,
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double by Monasterio on a center zone slider right across his
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crotch. I mean, come on, man, where are you putting it?
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Alvarado is a mess. Um, bunt attempt was popped
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out. Um, Heim finally threw somebody out. Monasterio at 3rd, it's probably because
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he's probably the slowest guy on the team. Um, but you know, everybody's been
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stealing on him, so why not him? Uh, single Yoshida,
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but Alvarado skates out of danger. I, you know, I put an asterisk and
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then I wrote something nice. Oh no, I didn't. I wrote, I'm scared of that
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dude still. Um, but he did get out of danger without damage.
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Um, if you don't— I don't even know how they term it all. I gotta
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talk to Sam more often. Um, he like— I feel like he tunnels his
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pitches only one way every game.
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If he's off out of zone and oozing high, it's that
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same freaking tunnel. It's the same freaking tunnel going,
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and, and that's how they tee off him.
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You know, it's an invent— an adventure when he's out there. But the
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bottom of the 7th, the A's went down 1, 2, 3, 9 pitches.
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It's back to the pathetic at the plate thing. Now I
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was kind of— we talked about Hayden Unger the, the past 2 series.
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Past 2 shows. He was recently promoted and he joins the
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mess. He hits Contreras, and because the A's love to put the first guy
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on every damn inning— I think it's at this point it was 6 of 8
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innings or something the first guy got on— but, uh, Younger got the next
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3 out really quick fashion. I'm telling you, there's something about how
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he handles himself. And I'm not keying in—
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I do that on purpose— I'm not keying on the exact facial expressions and that
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kind of thing like I usually do with the guys we have. Since he's new,
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I like to kind of just let him do his thing and see what he
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does. And I'm impressed right off the bat. He has a lot
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of relaxed, relaxed— now there's something to be
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said about, about being tense. I used to be a discus javelin thrower,
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and there's something about popping that, popping off right at the end.
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So yeah, boom. But he seems like he has
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that really relaxed, relaxed shoulder thrust.
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And I like the way he handles himself. So even when he's in damage,
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so far I like what I see. But Junger, like I said,
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he got the next 3 out. At the plate,
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A's rolled over. How often am I going to say this? A weak groundout on
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2 pitches. Another weak groundout on 2 pitches. Heim,
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0-2, strikes out.
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Heim struck out in this game on a fastball, a cutter, and a sinker.
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And, you know, then threw the token solo home run.
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But leaving people on, that's annoying. You know, his day sucked,
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home run or not. I'm just in a punching mood, man. We lost 3 of
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4. In the 9th, who freaking cares? Hogan Harris,
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uh, line out, strikeout. Monasterio fly out. 1, 2, 3 on 14
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pitches.
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Tommy White, Bolte, Alika Williams all struck out in the 9th for the A's.
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That's crazy.
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I don't know, it's a
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close game too. So Kurtz
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comes in, this— that's what I'm thinking about. Kurtz, he was available all game,
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close game, he gets a 1-out 9th inning AB.
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That bugs me, you know. He hits it to second base for an easy double
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play, they boot it. Um, at the end, Bolte and Alika Williams
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both strike out. We had a shot at that win,
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but 5 different A's had 2 or more strikeouts. That's horrible.
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Uh, finally though, a win to hang
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our hat on, and on a day when the matchup looked bad.
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It looked bad. Uh, Tuesday I wake up to
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the usual DFAing, or somebody in the bullpen's gone. Uh, Jeff Hartley was given
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his walking papers. So Scott Blewett was activated.
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He pitched today, mixed results. Uh, let's talk about
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him real quick. Uh, we were— he was acquired in a trade with the Cardinals
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for some cash. He's a 2nd-round pick for the Royals.
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He has a long minors career,
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59-64, 280 games,
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180 starts. But AAA,
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uh, 4-1, big ERA. Given the location,
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Summerlin. Uh, 5.18 ERA. The batting
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average against is .313, WHIP 1.66. That isn't
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all that. Uh, Gage Jump started for the A's in
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the second game, and he had lost his last 5 starts, 0-4,
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ERA near 8 in July alone.
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Great day. He didn't have great command, but he still got the win.
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Uh, Jump got behind in the count Right away, uh,
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3-0, man. You know, of course, double to Jamiah Jones.
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Uh, Contreras goes up ahead, 2-0, he walks.
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But Jump draws a double play, gets out of it. A's, what do they do?
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They're back to the 1-2-3 and 8 pitches at the plate. You know,
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surprised they're starting out lackluster, right?
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Surprised they're starting out with so many issues.
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Top of the second, Caleb Durbin singles with one out.
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Backup catcher, he get— they— it was Brian Servin,
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and, uh, he, uh, didn't get him at
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second, so there was a stolen base. Monasterio walks,
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but Jump mixed in 3 strikeouts, balanced that out. Nobody scored.
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He, he did not have his A-game, but given the last 4 starts
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it was nice to see that he was pulling out of things versus where
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he, he was starting to snowball like the others.
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For the A's, Tommy White, 1-out single.
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This is the only day he has hits, so this is a great day.
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So I'll be nice to him here, but he had a horrible rest of the
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series. Um, we sack Bunt again after he
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singles, so he goes to second. It doesn't lead to a score. Yes,
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very rarely. And I'm going to complain again in a game because
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we blow it a couple times, but in this one we did it right.
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Voltaire returned from the land of ass because that's what he is.
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He's been ass. And he has an RBI single,
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1-0 smash. That means 2 games now
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that we led, and we led today, so minimum
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3 games. We'll talk about the other one. I'm old and I just can't remember
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if we led off. Um, jump some more in the 3rd. Romy Gonzalez walks
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after jump, is down 2-0 on the count again. It's like
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coming out of those innings for— they're coming out for the next inning
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for our starters. Uh, but Contreras
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hits into another double play, 2nd double play of the game.
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A's, what do we do? Hold on,
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another weak 1-2-3 inning.
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11 pitches. Come on,
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be competitive a little.
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Jump settles down. He goes 1-2-3 on 12 pitches himself in the
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4th, and he needed that because I was a little worried. Even though he's
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navigating, I was a little worried about him. More apathy at
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the plate for the A's though. Heim, one-pitch pop-out. Sodi strikes
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out, but Tommy White singles again.
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Fantastic. But what happens? Colby White flies out on the next damn pitch.
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Colby White— or Colby Thomas,
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sorry about that, guys, it is late. Uh, Colby Thomas, he flies
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out on the next pitch. A's were done in 9 pitches,
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couldn't get anything together. Uh, Colby Thomas is, is having a
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struggle. I don't even know why he's still up at this point,
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I'll be honest with you. Not trying to be the downer.
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Trust me, in the— at the beginning of the year when we were kicking
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ass, we had happy shows. We had lots
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of happy shows, and it's just such a cluster
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F right now. So bear with us through these. Jaren— Jaren
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Duran, he dribbled one to Kurtz. Alika Williams didn't cover the first base,
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so they called it a single. I mean, to me, that's a big-ass error.
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But Jump picks him off at first and he's thrown out
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at second. Monasterio strikeout,
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but another walk. So it's like we were getting— we're getting them
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on and we're getting them out, getting them on, getting them out. It's like a
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bipolar game from hell for Jump,
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but a good outcome. Bolte outran a bunt for
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a single. Um, was it a bunt or a swing?
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Oh, to start the bottom of the 5th, he steals 2nd base, but the A's
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can't get anything out of it. He has stolen base, but he gets caught a
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couple times in this series as well. Uh, let's see,
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uh, Jump ends up at 90 pitches in the 6th. He has a
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nice 1-2-3 in 12 pitches, which was great.
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The bottom half, the A's only have him walked.
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Tommy single, singled, or Tommy single, single.
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Wow, I am old. Tommy White singles for the 3rd time.
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So we have people on 1st and 2nd. What does Colby Thomas do?
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He grounds out. Useless at this point.
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Luis Medina comes in, and Luis Medina is on
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the list. Medina comes in, jump finish the day. 6 innings,
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3 hits, 4 walks. That's, that's where we were having some
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issues. 4 walks for the 2nd start in a row. 7 strikeouts,
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no earned. He's had a few of the no-earns. Uh,
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Rafael singles off Medina and, uh,
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it's still 1-0. Uh, he gets a sac bunt,
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strikeout, fly out. It was easy. But for the A's,
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Bolte walks, moves over on a sac bunt. So again,
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it worked. I am not going to complain about it. But then
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it goes back to the same old people getting stuck on base. Brian Servin
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hits his first home run in, I don't know, it's 3 or 4 years.
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We're up 3-nothing. It felt kind of like destiny. And hey,
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Servin got a hold of it. I didn't realize that guy had that power.
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I guess most catchers have a pop in their bat.
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419 dead center.
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Jay Willy, he hits his 11th double down the left
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corner. But Kurtz went to strike 3 for like the second
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at-bat in a row. Just didn't look good. Wilson steals
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third base, but he's left out there.
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Uh, Medina stayed in. Yoshida singles. Uh,
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he walked Anthony Siegler but then flipped the score double
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play off of Romy Gonzalez, which helped.
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Contreras walks, and then they were just said they were done with Medina,
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and they should have thought about that for today because
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he kills us, kills us, kills us, I say.
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Hogan Harris comes in and allows an RBI single,
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3-1, then strikes out Rafaela.
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He keeps it at 3-1 after 8 innings. I'm sorry about the ding, but everybody's
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talking about the game. Uh, Tommy White hits his 4th single in
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the bottom of the 8th. Fantastic. For this game,
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that was fantastic. He was 0 for every— for everything else,
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the opener and the last 2 games. His 2nd 4-hit in
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10 career games though, 2nd 4-hit game.
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So he's, he's in it, man. I want him in the lineup every day
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even though he's had— he had a horrible last 2, 2 games.
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Um, Butler, he has a pinch hit RBI double. It's 4-1.
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Amazing hit. We needed it because We
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put in Hogan Harris, and again, God help us, God help us.
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Jaren Duran drops a 1-out single, um, to start
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the 9th. Connor Wong hits a 2-run homer with
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2 outs, so it's 4-3. Even the last out,
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Bolte basically bounced off the wall to get that fly. It's a
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deep fly off Harris because he's got to make it interesting,
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and I think I'm going to start calling him the new Mr.
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Foot Traffic now that Leiter's on IL. Not that I care,
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but Mr. Foot Traffic is now Hogan Harris.
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Yeah, we finally got a good win though. Tommy tanks— the
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rest of the series he's Tommy Tanked, but he was 4 for 4 with 2
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runs. Henry Bulte looked better overall,
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2 for 3 with a walk. He had a good day.
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I can't complain. What can I say?
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Our record, I'm complaining a lot. My wife's like, are you even
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having fun? I'm like, I love doing the show, I love doing my column,
22:59
but it's really hard to watch the team right now. But Jones got the win
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finally, finally got a win. He had, I think, 5 losses in a row on
23:07
5 consecutive starts. He's 4-6 and
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even 4 ERA. Congratulations,
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he's a top of the Delta Pledge class. Wednesday night's
23:20
game— taught the last show, I said
23:25
every series seems to have the same outcome.
23:27
There's close win or loss,
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a loss late, maybe extras. That's what I said.
23:35
And usually a blowout. And that's the A's right now.
23:38
This was an extra innings loss, 4-2.
23:41
Storyboard looks familiar. It's Jacob Lopez on
23:44
the mound. He had a 1-hitter in his last start,
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only 2 runs in his last 3 starts over 12
23:51
innings was nice, but expecting the
23:55
3 full decent starts in a row from Jacob was asking a lot.
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The stat of the game going in, I was watching it, stat of the
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game was Lopez leads baseball with 19 pitches per inning.
24:08
That's a lot, especially remember when we were talking about my, the, the Habit
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Hunter metric of 12 pitches is a good, uh, pitch count to show that
24:16
you're not putting a lot of people on, you're getting
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through the inning pretty quickly. That's a good inning. Usually there's no scoring.
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So he starts off, he walks Jones and Contreras. He has full
24:30
counts of the first 4 batters of the game. I mean, damn,
24:33
dude. It's like he was watching the game's pregame
24:38
show. But he survived. 27-pitch first inning.
24:41
He got out of it. Bottom of the first.
24:47
Injuries, guys, injuries. Kurtz gets hit on the forearm.
24:51
I'm sorry, I didn't want to look. I don't know whether it was wrist or
24:55
forearm. It looked like it was the forearm, but I know
24:59
it wasn't nefarious, but it cost Kurtz the rest of the day because he's gangsta.
25:03
He stayed in through the last half inning, didn't come out,
25:07
and I wish I had something to throw right now.
25:13
Nothing came of the hit-by-pitch. Kurt stayed in, but you can see it on his
25:16
face. Replay. I knew that forearm was gonna swell, it was gonna
25:20
hurt. He was pulled, and I'm glad, I'm glad,
25:24
um, because you know that was gonna smart, uh,
25:28
in the next at-bat. For Lopez in the 2nd, he gives up
25:32
a single to Monasterio. He had the first
25:35
3 batters down 0-2. That's a big difference for him.
25:39
2 strikeouts in this inning, that's a good inning for him.
25:42
Um, it's nice to see that he has that in him a little more
25:46
often lately. In the
25:50
bottom half of the second, Heim homers on his
25:54
pitch, which was a 2-0 count. So he was waiting, he was waiting
25:57
for his pitch on that, on that third pitch. 4:18,
26:01
104.2, 1-0.
26:04
So yeah, I guess we, uh, we started off winning every
26:08
game, we just lost 3 of them. That sucks.
26:12
Bolte walks but gets thrown out. And it was,
26:16
it was, it's the 2nd inning, guys.
26:20
Like, did Bolte need to steal right
26:23
then? Like, can we let a rally develop once?
26:27
Can we not give up the sac bunt out where now
26:31
we only have 2 outs to work with and the second one's a 2-out?
26:34
So yeah, you can't do a ground out and score.
26:38
You see what I'm saying? Let a rally develop once in a
26:42
while. Don't start scratching runs early. That's what I call it,
26:45
scratching runs. You're already clawing for runs. I mean, I know we're having problems getting
26:49
runs, but maybe it's because you do it that way.
26:53
Butler walks after 10 pitches. He had a 10-pitch at-bat.
26:57
He had a good day today. It's hard to be— it's hard to get mad
27:01
at when he does stupid crap like late inning strikeouts like he
27:05
did today. I mean, he had 2 doubles before that, so,
27:08
you know, he had a great series. I'm happy with him because
27:12
I have to be happy with somebody. It's him this, this time through.
27:15
Um, Hayes didn't score though.
27:19
Sucks. In the 3rd, Lopez allows a 1-out single to Rafaela.
27:23
I know his name now, right? Mirrored the 2nd single after the
27:27
strikeout. Red Sox didn't take advantage of it though.
27:32
Uh, A's at the plate. McNeil replaced Kurtz. They went down 1, 2, 3 on
27:35
9 pitches. It's not even competitive. Even White,
27:39
like I said, he had a 3-pitch strikeout.
27:44
In the 4th, Durbin singles for the Red Sox.
27:47
Monasterio, Sogard, they single, and it's loaded.
27:51
And it's like, bomb, double play,
27:55
Connor Wong, and it's over without scoring.
27:58
That was great. It's like,
28:02
I felt like it was almost destiny at that point. Things were going to go
28:04
great. Hein singles in the bottom of the 4th,
28:08
but the A's mixed in a couple strikeouts, and Colby Thomas popped out.
28:13
And yeah, I'm gonna be honest, he needs AAA again.
28:16
He's batting .120 in July,
28:19
he's hitless. I don't know, let me check today.
28:25
Is he hitless today? No, he went 2-for-4.
28:30
Batting .121 in July, he went hitless in 12 of
28:34
15 July games going into the finale.
28:38
Um, Lopez throws a duck to Jamai Jones. He homers to tie it
28:43
first pitch in the 5th.
28:46
Quack quack, he threw a duck. It was a duck.
28:51
Lopez strikes out the next 3 guys to keep it 1-1. Well,
28:55
that's pretty good, but it was like,
28:59
go ahead and serve that one up, kind of like Adina did
29:03
today twice. Sick on back-to-back pitches.
29:07
Bottom half, Law Dog gets
29:11
it right back, gets that run right back. .422,
29:14
.103.4 off the bat. Like I said,
29:17
doubles and home— doubles and a home run. Uh,
29:21
2-1 lead. Right after that, McNeil and Wilson
29:25
both singled. They're left out there and we could have used another score.
29:28
It was like opportunity Yeah, the pitcher on his heels a little
29:32
bit. Aves gave it right back. Lopez was
29:36
sent out there at 88 pitches. I didn't like it. I didn't like
29:40
it. Like I said, I'm not going to like every single thing that our new
29:43
pitching coach does because also I understand that
29:47
there's going to be other— you know, there's— he
29:51
probably has even less say as a pitching coach than
29:56
everybody else. Probably then he probably has less, you know,
29:59
control. People are telling him when and what and
30:03
who. I was, I was chatting with
30:06
Connor and Patrick, his guest on Rants Live, and Patrick
30:10
asked why I thought that, why I thought he shouldn't be out there. And before
30:14
I responded, he was like, oh, that's why. And it's
30:18
like, you can't even write it out more accurately because it's like Durbin,
30:22
Durbin already had his number. Why You know he's coming
30:25
up first the next inning. Why is Lopez out there?
30:29
That made no sense. He gets an out and he's pulled, but Durbin
30:33
tagged up from first. Butler couldn't throw him out from right
30:36
field. There's one thing that irritated me about Butler. It was like
30:40
it wasn't even close either. Hayden Younger,
30:43
he came in again. He replaced Lopez.
30:47
Um, Lopez, by the way, 5 and a third innings, he spread out 7 hits.
30:50
That's a lot of hits. But he spread them out,
30:54
navigated, uh, 1 home run, 2 walks, 8 Ks,
30:58
1 earned. Um, Younger,
31:01
Nick Sygaard, RBI single ties it at 2. And I
31:06
swear to God, guys, stop for a second. Stop.
31:13
I swear to freaking God, Dallas called Nick
31:17
Sygaard The player that got
31:21
an RBI single off Younger means he's on the other team.
31:25
He called him Soggy like he's one of the boys.
31:30
Like, no, Dallas, hard no.
31:34
He just tied the fucking game that
31:39
we ended up losing. You're a knucklehead. Quit glossing the
31:42
enemy like that. You know, are you gonna call him,
31:46
you know, Law Soggy? You know, go Law
31:49
Soggy! Like, come on, man, pretend your bills
31:54
are being paid by these guys.
31:57
And the A's respond 1, 2, 3 on 11 pitches.
32:01
Um, Younger, he stays in for the 7th. He allows a double by Rafaela.
32:06
Um, but I think it was more Butler's fault.
32:09
Because Butler took a couple steps forward and then he went back and it was
32:13
bad. It was bad. He walked Contreras too, so he's pulled
32:16
for Elvis Alvarado. And of course Elvis Alvarado was always in trouble right
32:20
off the bat because he only throws it one way and he lets you know
32:24
after the first pitch that's where the tunnel is for the rest of the game.
32:29
Walks Durbin, who shredded Wednesday. I mean, for, for real.
32:33
A good mound visit settled him down though. He got Romy Gonzalez on a groundout.
32:37
That's twice that Gonzalez ended an inning when
32:41
it looked like we were about to give up some stuff,
32:44
uh, which is great. Hayes Wilson reached on a Monasterio
32:49
error. McNeil does his job in singles. It's first and third.
32:53
McNeil steals second, so it's second and third, no scoring.
32:56
Like, come on guys, one clutch single somewhere
33:00
in that team.
33:03
Hmm. Alvarado stayed in, hits Monasterio,
33:07
back-to-back strikeouts, and he's pulled for Brady Basso. And I like Brady Basso right
33:10
now. Basso saves the inning for real.
33:14
Jonah Heim singles in the bottom of the 8th. There's nothing there. Uh,
33:17
Basso stayed in, was kind of bipolar. He had back-to-back strikeouts
33:21
and then he gave up back-to-back singles. Contreras, Durbin— I told you Durbin
33:25
all day. Durbin did this, Durbin did that. Well-timed mound
33:29
visit right here because I'm really starting to like Dan Hubs, how he's walking and
33:33
talking the talk, because he went out there and talked to his boy.
33:37
And that's all I ever wanted from Emerson. I'll take the game face off for
33:42
a second, but for real, that's all I ever wanted from Scott
33:46
Emerson. That's all I ever wanted from Kotzebue. I want some accountability. I want you
33:48
guys to go out there and stop the bleeding. You guys watch
33:52
the bleeding. You, you guys watch people bleed out game
33:57
after game after game.
34:03
So, and this 8th trip to the plate, this pisses me off. Butler hits
34:07
it off the top of the left center wall for a double. No, it wasn't
34:11
off the top, it's kind of like probably about 18
34:14
inches from the top of the, top of the fence would have been over.
34:17
That was how close we were to splitting the series.
34:21
He hits it off the top, basically left center wall for a double,
34:25
and so we're at scoring position, guy in scoring position with nobody
34:29
out. And so what do we do? We do the stupid sac bunt.
34:33
It's like, go ahead and put it in a damn play.
34:38
The sac bunt up to third, there he stays. Jacob Wilson, he has
34:42
like the most uninspiring ABs in history. 3 pitches,
34:46
3 swings, all zone. Down 0-2
34:49
on his last 3 at-bats Wednesday. It was like Jacob was having
34:53
problems. Uh, McNeil strikes out too, so winning this game
34:57
there's too much to ask. Just stop the damn sac bunts,
35:01
please. It worked, what, 6 times all year? I don't
35:05
know. Extras pissed me off. The 10th, mandatory runner on second.
35:08
Kot goes with Chubby Bunny. Jose Suarez on the mound.
35:15
He threw a 91-mile-per-hour fastball down
35:18
the middle, right down the pipe, after going down 0-2.
35:22
So you knew he was looking for The zone, but not the
35:26
freaking middle of it. Andrew Monasterio, 2-run bomb,
35:29
.428,
35:35
102.6. That was it, man. I can't even root for Swarzempik.
35:40
Swarzempik 4-6s us all. That was ball game. 4-2 loss.
35:44
Another shot at winning gone. So crap stats.
35:47
Tommy tanks his Tommy toilets. Golden sombrero. Tommy 0-2
35:51
counts. Sodi Pop, Golden Sombrero,
35:55
14 Ks. As a team,
35:58
15-0-2 counts.
36:01
Hein was 3-for-5 with a bomb. Butler,
36:04
2-for-3 with a double and a walk. That was our good stuff.
36:08
Just think what we could do if the heart of the lineup
36:12
isn't whatever it was, 0-for-10 with 8 Ks.
36:15
That's insane. So we're
36:19
at 36 and we're heading for the finale. We're doing good time.
36:24
Uh, the finale, there was a chance for a split still, and all I was
36:28
thinking about was we haven't had the blowout loss yet.
36:32
And thank God we didn't. We didn't. We were in this game. We should have
36:35
won this game.
36:38
Phase 1 with reliever. Damn it, I just flipped Soda
36:44
off my forehead. Uh, Mason Barnett starting the finale.
36:48
He did that once other— one other time and had a really solid start.
36:52
And for this game, 1-2-3 inning, 12 pitches, solid start.
36:57
Jacob Wilson hits a one-out double, moved to third on a ground out by Sodi,
37:00
but he, you know, left there. I was actually pretty stoked that
37:04
we started off with, with an extra-base hit in the first instead of the 1-2-3.
37:09
Uh, the second, 1-2-3 for both teams.
37:12
Another inning for Barnett. So he had another 1-2-3 inning, 8 pitches.
37:16
Fantastic. This guy, we— I think they had
37:20
him in a little bit too long, but I like him.
37:24
Like, if we could condense him
37:28
where he starts a game and Perkins finishes it for him and
37:33
somebody else comes and the 5th starter. I'd love that.
37:37
Let me know what you guys think, put in the comments.
37:41
Um, Sonny Gray, who's our former star, love the dude,
37:46
tried not to pay attention to him, but he was 1-2-3 on 10 pitches too.
37:51
Uh, Barnett, he cruised through a 3rd time, 1-2-3 with a strikeout.
37:56
He had a— that was a curveball. The curveball was sweet,
37:59
just And just all I could
38:03
do is look like, ah, uh, Carlos Cortez,
38:07
he leads off the 3rd with a walk. Kurtz gets on from an error,
38:10
and, uh, Jay Willy, he singles for a 1-0 lead.
38:14
Now Sodi ruins 1st and 2nd with one out with what?
38:19
Double play. Should have been a big inning. That should have been a big
38:24
inning for sure, but Only one
38:27
run. That cost us later in the game. Of course, I don't even
38:31
know how to say this person's name. That's why I was— I kept joking around
38:35
calling Donatello or Master's Foot, whatever. Sedani Rafaela,
38:39
he singles for the Red Sox. He steals second because that's what we do.
38:43
Contreras walks behind him and we get a mound visit. And Hubs,
38:48
he settles Barnett down. And Barnett got Yoshida to ground out
38:52
and And I'm telling you, Hubs deserves the
38:56
job just based on a week's work. There's been a couple of people I'm wondering
38:59
why he sent them in at that point, or, you know, wow, he was just
39:03
pitching the other day, that kind of thing, and not doing well. But overall,
39:07
Hubs is consistent. He goes out and talks to the young
39:11
minds. These guys are young, and I, I hate
39:15
to say it, I hope I don't piss anybody off, but the Millennials
39:20
are a little more sensitive because they have so many people coming at
39:24
them from social media as well as normal people that are in everyday
39:28
life. So I've always been of the impression that you
39:32
should probably be a little more careful with them. And that's my big problem
39:36
with— back with Scott Emerson was that he was just leaving him out
39:40
there and just staring. And I'm like, man, you're ruining that guy. You're not
39:44
just ruining this game, you're ruining that guy. How many guys got DFA next
39:49
day? Anyway,
39:53
he settles him down. Jonah Heim in our bottom half—
39:56
in the bottom half, he doubles to open. Butler RBI double right behind
40:01
him. I told you Butler is a beast in this series. RBI double,
40:04
2-0.
40:07
Sweet, sweet. McNeil singles first and third.
40:11
Cortez strikes out. But Donovan Walton,
40:15
RBI single, 3-nothing.
40:18
Beautiful. Kurtz walks, loads the bases, but Jay Willey popped
40:22
out on the first pitch. Okay, that's fine. It was a nice— it was a
40:26
nice, um, rally. We don't get those very often anymore.
40:29
Remember at the beginning of the year we were getting those? We have these nice
40:33
first innings where we have 4 or 5 runs. That don't happen anymore,
40:37
not the way Not the way we're
40:40
built now. I mean, we're so injured that— think
40:45
about how many of these guys 2 years ago weren't even playing in the pros,
40:49
you know, and now they're the people we rely on most.
40:54
Um, 5th, to be honest, I was surprised Barnett was still pitching for the A's.
40:59
He hits Caleb Durbin to open the inning. I was telling the guys in the
41:03
chat I was just like, why is he still out? It's gonna get bad.
41:08
Monasterio, RBI single, it's 3-1. I'm going,
41:12
ooh, you know, you should probably get somebody up right now.
41:15
Siegler, single.
41:19
And they did a mound visit, and it's useless to me if
41:23
you don't pull the guy. He was obviously having issues.
41:26
He hit somebody and back-to-back singles. He's got
41:30
a problem. He's got a 3-1 lead,
41:33
man. Bring someone fresh in. And I know it's kind of a nightmare on
41:38
who, but do it.
41:41
It's better to bring in somebody hoping they don't do something versus leaving
41:45
somebody in that you know is going to do something horrible. Next pitch,
41:49
Rafaela, who's already having a great game. 2-run double.
41:54
My wife sat next to me as I called that. I called, I said,
41:57
I was sitting there, I'm like screaming at it going, why aren't
42:01
you taking him with you? I see, I do get
42:05
pissed off at Hub sometimes. Why didn't you take him with you? Next pitch,
42:08
right? My wife's like, wow,
42:12
how'd you know that? Well, because they've done it probably 47
42:16
games this year, kind of like that. Todd has
42:19
to go. Let's top it off, they leave after the double, they leave
42:23
Barnett in for another one. For another hitter.
42:25
They're gonna have— it was like it was written. I'm starting to
42:29
believe Booney where he says maybe it's not Tott, which just
42:33
makes him Joe Biden, you know, where you're
42:38
just— you're the figurehead but you're not the, the guy.
42:42
Maybe that is true. I'm starting to believe Booney that, you know,
42:46
Tott is just the, just the figurehead and somebody else
42:49
is calling the shots because That's what it looked like. He left, he left him
42:52
out to the end. Anybody in their right mind would have pulled him.
42:57
Uh, 8-answer with 3 up, 3 down. Uh,
43:01
Scott Blewett took over from Barnett. He's new, like I said.
43:05
He almost lived up to his name. Contreras and Yoshida both singled.
43:08
He gets through it though. Barnett went 5 innings, 4 hits,
43:12
3 earned, 1 walk, 6 Ks.
43:16
And what the hell happened to Butler? He has another double and,
43:21
uh, he scores on back-to-back sac flies. We actually
43:24
pulled off back-to-back sac flies. It was like
43:28
8:26 PM. I was happy.
43:32
7th, 1-2-3 for both teams.
43:35
1-2-3. Blewett stayed in. He went 1-2-3 on 11 pitches,
43:38
which, like I said, you know, yeah, he's, he's been
43:42
around a long time. Uh, A's went 1, 2, 3 in the bottom half at
43:46
the plate. Top of the order struck out. Kurt struck out. Wilson struck
43:50
out. Sodi struck out. It's just
43:54
not good baseball here. I, I gotta stop.
44:02
44. Luis Medina, Willier Abreu,
44:05
solo home run, .422. Next pitch,
44:09
Contreras, home run, .414. Just like that, we lost.
44:15
Freaking 840 feet of home run. Thanks, Medina.
44:18
Thanks, Forrest. Thanks for stopping by.
44:24
Ace can't have nice things. Ace fans can't have nice
44:28
things. You know, Jonah Heinz starts
44:32
the bottom half with a single. Tommy tanks, double play.
44:36
He has a nice 0-for-9 stretch with 6 strikeouts.
44:40
That's not the Tommy Tanks I want. I know he's in there, and so I'm
44:43
not worried about it. He could do that 5 more games, and I just don't
44:45
want him there. But speaking of strikeouts, it's late
44:49
innings, so Butler did what? He struck out. But in
44:53
all fairness, he had a great series. He did. He had a great series.
44:55
I actually wrote it down. He batted .454, 5 for 11 with
44:59
a home run, 3 doubles. That's fantastic.
45:03
That's better than Kurtz's 0 for 9 with 4 Ks, or Sotis, 1 for
45:07
16 with that home run. 1 for 16 with 7 strikeouts.
45:12
What are you doing? We were in every damn
45:15
game, guys. We just don't have the ponies to get across
45:19
the plane. We don't.
45:23
That's it. We lost 5-4, another series loss.
45:26
It's hard to blame the starters in this game. I looked it up,
45:30
22 innings, 6 earned. That's 2.45 ERA. While the
45:34
relievers gave up 5 home runs by themselves.
45:38
5 home runs in 15 innings, 18 hits,
45:44
6 walks, 8 earned.
45:47
4.8 ERA is actually good for them.
45:51
That's crazy stuff. At the
45:55
plate, Jonah Heim, he was— he batted .375, 6 for 16,
45:59
had 4 runs. Home run,
46:03
not bad. McNeil, he batted .363,
46:06
4 for 11. He had a hit in every game he played in.
46:10
But everybody, lots of strikeouts, lots of strikeouts.
46:15
Volpe, 3. Thomas, 4. Thomas was 2 for 9,
46:19
and he had 2 at the— in the start, but he was 0 for the
46:22
rest of the series. Um, Tommy White, 4 for 17,
46:26
5 strikeouts, but he was 4 for 4.
46:30
In one game. That's not good, guys.
46:34
We have 3 games at Center Health Park versus the Tigers, who swept the A's
46:38
in Detroit. So it's frying pan into the fire.
46:42
Not good, guys. Hey, go get some rest. Wake up,
46:46
new series, fresh start. I like Tigers. I just
46:50
hate the Tigers. That's all I got, as always.
46:54
Be excellent to each other. I'm a ghost. I'm a ghost.