Don't bring that it in here. You know how we feel about the situation.

You thought that two weeks of the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals heals all ills?

As far as the performance by A's pitchers there are a couple of factors to look at;

• The A's are facing a former closer, lead off hitter and bench coach. All three have considerable insight to the A's.


• The game plan was poorly constructed and horribly executed.
• Adam Melhuse was catching.


• Ken Macha does not understand how to utilize his bullpen.


• Ken Macha does not understand how to utilize his lineup - why was Mark Kotsay batting lead off with an 0 for 16 and 1 for 23 stretch?


• The A's hitters forced themselves into a corner against Curt Schilling and didn't come out until it was too late (Damian Miller did catch Schilling two years ago - why wasn't he in the lineup?).


• The A's have averaged only 4 runs over the last 12 games against inferior opponents while giving up just 2.3 runs against two teams that are not exactly world beaters (yah, Detroit may be ranked high in some team categories, but they have been playing against the AL Central teams, too).

So, what do you do? You gear up for tomorrow and watch Justin Duchscherer carve up the Red Sox and wonder what might have been.

That, and you curse Ken Macha's name until you bleed from the mouth.