FINGERING

The A’s can definitely point to the last week as a distinct period where they blew incredible chances. When the Mariner’s lost, the A’s lost. The A’s very well could be in the top spot for the Wild Card and only a single game out if they would have scored four runs a game instead of their usually two.

Barry Zito lost a 3-2 complete game on one swing of the bat and Mark Mulder lost a 3-2 complete game the following night, thought he had a few more mistakes squeezed in there.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox dropped 3 of 4 to the Orioles during the weekend series and 5 of 7 in a little over a week.

This week’s series with the A’s proves to be pivotable. The A’s could very well take the lead in the AL Wild Card race and gain some ground on Seattle as the M’s host the Blue Jays.

Richy Pitch Harden lost his first MLB game yesterday. Harden only got through five innings, though he did strike out 8. Doesn’t help that the only run of support the A’s got was an 8th inning solo homerun my Adam Milhouse. Harden had one tough inning and an underlying factor may have been that the A’s had done nothing on offense to that point. This was a day after Ted Lilly got yanked with a four run lead in the fourth inning Saturday. So, that whole rested bullpen thing kind of goes up in smoke.

The lone bright spot was Chad Bradford, who after several days off, looked fantastic. Bradford struck out Frank Thomas swinging with the bases loaded and got Magglio Ordonez to ground out to get out of Ted Lilly’s jam in the 4th. Bradford faced 8 batters and struck out 5 of them. Bradford’s not a K pitcher, but who the hell cares?

Terrence Long is absolutely stinking up the joint. Not that should surprise anyone. Meanwhile, Ken Macha allows Dave Hudgens to screw Eric Byrnes’ swing up so badly he can’t see straight and keep Adam Piatt on the pine for weeks at a time.

Also, the Reds called up Joe Valentine and Aaron Harang. THAT is how deep the A's organization is.