Monday: Mariners 1-6 A’s

Tuesday: Mariners 3-4 A’s

Wednesday: Mariners 6-1 A’s

One of the recurring themes of this season thus far is the inability of the A’s lineup to hit tricky left handed pitching. Time and time again, they’ve looked bamboozled, and have not been able to give the team’s young starters the run support they need. This was the case again in the final game of the three game set with the Seattle Mariners; lefty Erik Bedard kept the A’s bats to just five hits. One of these however, scored the A’s only run of the game and it came courtesy of the first long ball of the year for Bobby Crosby. A Bobby Crosby Home run. Yes, I’m scared too. Against Bedard, Cahill put together another quality start, giving up three runs in six innings, before the bullpen gave up a couple of insurance runs later on.

The good news is that this loss followed two solid wins for the A’s. They couldn’t quite close out the series for their first sweep, and their first four game winning streak of the year, but still. Baby steps.

For the first two games, and for one of the first times this season, the A’s actually looked like a decent team. Monday was an excellent performance, coming behind a six innings of one run work from Brett Anderson, who really seems to be hitting his stride now. Hopefully, we can chalk up his previous struggles to early season rookie nerves, and enjoy his improvement for the rest of the year. He was backed up admirably by Adam Kennedy, who, leading off, went four for four with a walk. What a pickup he has been; since coming in for the injured Mark Ellis, he’s provided more than competent defense, he’s hitting over .400 (still!) and a case could easily be made that he’s been responsible for the A’s playing .500 ball over the last ten games. Travis Buck also hit his second home run of the year, going three for three, and then promptly got benched for the next game. It seems to be going that way rather often.

Still, the A’s picked up another win for ace Dallas Braden, who is providing tremendous leadership thus far. The A’s offence was shut down for six innings by Jarrod Washburn, but they waited him out and got to the Mariners’ bullpen with four runs in the bottom of the sixth innings. Braden went seven, gave up three, and then Andrew Bailey came on in the ninth for his second save of the year. Interesting stat – he’s got the most strike outs of any reliever in the major leagues. He’s also thrown a lot of innings, so let’s hope that doesn’t come back to haunt him.

The A’s have a day off today, and head to Texas for an old fashioned, day night double header on Friday, making up for a rainout earlier on. The Rangers are looking look at the moment, so this is going to be an interesting test.