A's split series with Twins - bring on the Giants!

Monday: Twins 3-4 A’s

Tuesday: Twins: 10-5 A’s

Wednesday: Twins 6-3 A’s

Thursday: Twins 3-4 A’s

So, the streak ended at seven. And then fire came down from heaven, the earth opened up and swallowed the stadium, and prohibition was brought back in. Wait, what? That was all a dream? But the seven game winning streak still happened, right? Right. So, it seems that when the A’s play some teams that are not terrible, the occasionally loose. They were well beaten on Tuesday, with their five runs not coming until the bottom of the ninth (at least they made Nathan work a little, at least.). On Wednesday, too, the twins were dominant. I was at the game, and as the wag behind me put it when Joe Nathan came out for the ninth “The A’s have as much chance of scoring tonight as I do”.

How we laughed. And then four minutes later, went home.

It was a difficult outing for Dallas Braden; whilst he never looked terrible, the twins always looked as if they were capable of picking up hits against him when they needed to. Still, the A’s did bring a 3-2 lead into the eighth, and then, following a Jason Kubel home run off of Michael Wuertz (only the second off him this year), it was tied up at three each going into the ninth. Andrew Bailey was brought in, he looked tired and hittable, and three runs later, it was game over. A disappointing game to drop, but there you go.

They made up for it in the final game of the series by winning the Thursday matinee. Trevor Cahill had another nice performance, marred only by three runs given up in the fourth. He’s getting more efficient and as such is getting deeper into ballgames, something which helps the bullpen immensely. He also only walked two in his seven innings, which is another good sign that he’s adjusting well to major league hitters, and the extra patience they bring to their approach. However, the bats offered no support, and it looked like the team had returned to the bad old days of losing and being shut out a lot before an RBI from Orlando Cabrera and a two run homer from that man again, Adam Kennedy, in the eighth inning pulled the A’s level. They then followed it up in the bottom half of the ninth inning with a walk off single from… Rajai Davis? What? No, you eyes do not deceive you.

NAILS.

So, they have an away interleague series against the Giants, starting tonight. Away, as in, yknow, across the bay bridge. Probably the most interesting matchup is the first game which features Vin Mazzaro, still to give up a run, against Tim Lincecum. With neither the A’s nor the Giants not exactly featuring an explosion of hitting this season, this could be 0-0 after 12 innings. It’ll be an interesting test for the young man, and surely the highest profile game he’s been in. Also, as the Giants are actually over .500, it should be a good marker as to the relative strengths of the two divisions; The A’s go down to play the Dodgers and the Padres later in the month, so this might give an indication of what they can expect.

Go A’s!