[Bub13]

June 7-8 @ OAKLAND
Having gone just 3-7 lately, the A's are now 29-29, seven games in back of us. Hitting is still keeping them afloat, and Vinny Vargas is having another good year (.326/.439/.623, 13 HR). Pitching and defense are struggling right now, rating in the bottom quarter of the league. Let's keep punching them while they're down.

#59: LOSS 0-3 ... booooo...Of course we get 7-hit and shut out...It's like we were bored to death out there
#60: WIN 10-5 ... Collins blasts a GRAND SLAM in the first, and Dunklee adds his 20th in the 9th...Robertson adds three hits

A snorefest shutout and a 15-hit, 10-run lalapalooza. Sure, welcome to AL baseball. Also, Oakland SP Matt Bienvenu, game #60 loser, has an 8.02 ERA in 58.1 innings, highest among qualified pitchers. ELSEWHERE...Pittsburgh's Gustavo Maldonado gave up a single to the second Montreal batter of the day, picked him off, then retired the next 25 batters in a row....New Orleans is still stuck at 19 wins, and a .322 win pct....Minnesota just put two starting pitchers on season-ending DL, making for seven players on the DL right now.


June 10-13 vs LA ANGELS
Currently tied for fourth, at 27-32, 9.5 games out. They're 16th in runs scored, and 6th in runs against. Starting pitcher ERA is pretty frightful tho, at 4.85, and their closer, Eric Odom, has an ERA of 6.67.

#61: WIN 6-4 ... Casillas 7.1 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 9 K...Shewmake gets his 20th save...Groff 3 hits
#62: WIN 8-4 ... Moreno comes off the bench with a HR and three RBI...Wiggins goes 4-for-5
#63: LOSS 2-4 ... Clark yields just four hits but also four runs and takes the loss...Collins with two throwing errors from behind the plate
#64: WIN 8-2 ... backup C Villaneuva with a double and a HR...Robertson 3 hits, now up to .300...Little is money again, running his record to 7-1

These are games and series we need to win, so I'll take these three wins and move on. We're now 40-24, 7.5 games up on Oakland. Overall, we're hitting well right now and our pitching has been the best we've ever had. Now we head off for the second, and last, week of interleague play, with series against New Orleans, St Louis, and Chicago. Let's hope for a better result than our 3-6 record last time out. Finally, 4th round pick, and impossible-demand-guy Alan Branham refused our $3.5M offer and will go off to college. Sigh. ELSEWHERE...Baltimore's Raul Trevino is the first to 10 wins in the AL, the Cubs' Scott Kopetsky just hit the mark in the NL....Washington is 1-9 in their last ten to drop out of the race in the NL East, but SS Ty Cobb is leading the league with a .356 average, going for his tenth career batting title.


June 14-16 @ NEW ORLEANS
The Zephs are struggling along with the worst record in baseball, at 21-43. Our co-expansionsists have yet to get a 70-win season, and this year will be no different, alas. They are dead last or near-last in nearly every offensive category, and are shplurgling along with a -96 run diff. Only two starters are hitting over .218. Pitching is a little better...Well, at least the bullpen is okay, at third in the league, but the starters are in 17th, with an ERA of 5.02. The good news is that their minor league system is ranked 8th overall, so there are prospects bubbling up from the depths.

#65: WIN 10-0 ... not sure why, up 10-0, our manager (me, but not me) trots out to the mound to change pitchers with 2 outs in the ninth, but someone's likely getting beaned next game
#66: WIN 2-1 ... three solo HR account for all the scoring...Casillas goes 8 strong innings, which is good as we only manage four hits
#67: WIN 6-0 ... another shutout against these poor blighters...Dunklee and Groff homer, and Brock pitches 8 innings, gives up just 5 hits

Yeah, the Zephyrs are pretty terrible. We gave up just one run and 19 hits over the series, while pounding out 8 HR and 18 runs of our own. Nearly as many runs for us as hits for them. They're drawing less than 14K per game too. Tsk. ELSEWHERE...Washington reliever Davey Hayat retired at 25 with a torn rotator cuff. He had two good, sub-3 ERA seasons, but was struggling badly this year, with an ERA over ten, and had given up 47 hits and 20 walks in just 27 innings of work. He was one of just ten players from Aruba in professional baseball....Chicago and Pittsburgh are running away with the NL Central: tied for first and nine games up on the Reds. We'll see the Cubs after our next series against the Cards.


June 18-20 @ ST LOUIS
The Cards are defying the gods by flirting with .500 baseball, at 33-34. Of course, that still puts them in fifth place, 9.5 games behind the Cubs and Pirates, but that's still progress. Truth be told, their teams stats read a lot like the Zephyrs, only slightly higher placed (with the notable exceptions of being 8th in HR and 9th in runs against). 1B Justin Wade (.286/13/40) and C Chris West (.300/8/28) pace the attack. And while no pitchers stand out in a positive way, Jarod Morrell brings his 1.93 ERA out of the bullpen to (probably) face us in the first game. Sadly, we'll miss getting to bat against Tim "The Alchemist" Fludd and his 6.85 ERA.

#68: LOSS 10-11 ... winds were blowing out in this one...We were doing okay (Clark notwithstanding) until the pen gave up six in the last two innings
#69: WIN 5-4 ... Little gets the win despite Collins' 3-run throwing error in the third...CL Shewmake gets hurt
#70: WIN 7-6 ... a smallball run in the ninth that gave us a 7-1 lead turns out to be the winner after the Cards get 5 in their half

These games were a little too exciting, if you ask me. I guess we were a little flat-footed after playing the AAA Zephyrs. We did keep pounding out home runs--six in this series alone--and game 70 also saw us get 12 walks. I can't remember us ever approaching 10 before...The bullpen looked very ragged in this series. Tighten up, folks, we're gonna need you for these next guys. ELSEWHERE...Oakland's 8.5 behind us, having crept over .500 again....The Cubs, up next, would be 1/2 game behind us if we were all one big, happy division....Arizona continues to lead the NL West (2 games over the Dodgers), largely thanks to SP Drew Falconbury, with these stats: 9-2, 1.66, 92 IP, 72 H, 91 K, 6 BB, 3.7 WAR. Remember, when I went a-calling on him this off-season, he wanted $29M from me...and eventually signed with the Dbacks for 19M.


June 21-23 vs CHICAGO CUBS
Truly a team effort, this squad, as no player (save for SP Scott Kopetsky with 10 wins) is at or near the top of any statistical category. They don't hit much (14th in AVG, 12th in HR), but are 4th in OBP, and do a lot with what they get, scoring 302 runs. That's only good for 8th overall--right down the middle--but their run diff is +65. Their rotation has been money: all five guys well below the league average for ERA. The bullpen has been okay enough, and their defense is stellar. So good, in fact, that you get an OOTP oddity like SS Jordan Cruz. He's a Gold Glove candidate, and their leadoff batter, who's on pace to steal 39 bases and hit 15 HR. But...he is an offensive black hole: .161/.267/.275 this year, and on pace for 285 strikeouts. How does he stay at the top of the lineup?

#71: LOSS 3-5 ... Casillas throws 2 bad pitches in the first, and bang: two HR and 4-0 Cubs...we try to play catch-up but can only muster five hits
#72: WIN 4-2 ... Brock with his customary 7 good innings (4 H, 2 R)...this time we manage 10 hits, capped by Videira's 10th dinger in the 2nd
#73: WIN 6-5 ... Little fills in for Clark (more below) and gets pounded early, but the bullpen holds firm and we get two in the 9th to seal the deal

Mentioned above, Ken Clark misses his start due to heart palpitations; which is only fair, given that my heart skips beats whenever he's on the mound. He'll be back in a couple days...Collins is heating up, raising his average 30 points this month (up to .301 now). ELSEWHERE...Oakland has won five in a row. Guess who we're off to play next?...Toronto has lost five in a row, and is now tied for first with the Red Sox, who at one point this season were eight games below .500.


June 25-27 @ OAKLAND
Our third dance with the A's this year. We've split six games. Vinny Vargas continues to be Mr Everything, going .342/.451/.689 at the plate, with 18 HR. Historical note: Vargas was acquired--along with two other prospects--from the Angels for then 31-year-old (now retired) SP Brendan Mostovoy, who lasted one season and 11 wins in LA.

#74: LOSS 3-5 ... just doing what we can to keep Matt "8.32 ERA" Bienvenu employed, by letting him hold us to six hits...Clark has the drearies again
#75: WIN 12-6 ... you take sixteen hits, and what do you get...anyway, Drayton is en fuego, going 3-for-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI...Dunklee and Groff also homer
#76: LOSS 1-2 ... Casillas is strong again, but his run support has just dried up...We manage five hits and zero walks

Disappointing, especially that first game against a horrifically struggling starter. Oh well, at least no one got hurt. Now we welcome Seattle to town for a four-spot. We need to keep their heads below water. ELSEWHERE...Congrats Baltimore! Your ten-game losing streak has brought you within range of the AL East basement and the horrible Yankees...You already know the Cards have been hovering at or just below .500 for some time now, but let's hear it for two other perennial doormats: the White Sox and the Brooklyn Robins. Chicago is 41-37, which is miles above anything they've seen for six years now. It's too early to say "wild card" but you know they're saying it anyway. And the Robins, owners of zero playoff appearances (and only two winning seasons) in their sixteen years on the scene, are hanging in at 40-38, which is pretty good in the largely decrepit NL East.


June 28-30 vs SEATTLE
We're 3-1 against the Mariners, who are trying to recapture lost momentum and are still within shouting distance at 39-38. Six players are currently on the DL, including 3/4 of their infield, and their best player, Mike Wapner. Starter Aaron Myers is third in the league with 124 strikeouts.

#77: LOSS 2-3 ... time to fiddle with the lineup, as we snooze through another one...Myers K's just four, but we still can't score off him
#78: LOSS 5-8 ... ugh; everyone gets a hit, but we have to score three in the ninth to make it look respectable...Little gets hammered again
#79: LOSS 4-6 ... new ways to lose! This time we get two in the ninth but the pen blows it in the 11th...Clark is ragged, Steve Miller Band blows the game

Well, we've got one more on July 1st to try to avoid the sweep. What the hell guys, everything looked so good just a week ago. I may have to kneecap a couple of guys and get some new blood in here. Trade deadline is a month away, and there may be changes, especially for the guys afflicted by the blahs. ELSEWHERE...Eh, I dunno. Mets 1B Nate Johnson has 33 HR, on pace for 70. What else matters?


Next up: Some wins, maybe?