19 Innings Sans Runs, 9 Games Sans Wins… But Who’s Counting?

Josh Reddick put it best, the A’s need some help of the supernatural variety, because this is getting rather ridiculous. The A’s were shutout for the 6th time in the last 16 games, and a league leading 10th time in 2012.  It goes without saying that this is not a category you want to lead the world in.  Only Jemile Weeks and Josh Reddick were the only two players bold enough to get a base hit, Jemile took 2 of them for himself.  Felipe Paulino was simply dominant, he showed just why he is one of the most talented hurlers in the game… Who am I kidding?  I personally could shut out the A’s right now, throwing left handed, and I’m not a lefty.  Paulino has been solid this year, but the A’s are like a lamb and any opposing pitcher is a rabid wolf.

TURNING POINT: This was another unfortunate instance where the game was truly over before it even got going.  As a matter of fact the game was over before Bartolo Colon even recorded an out.  It took 8 pitches to be exact, 5 to walk Alex Gordon, and 3 to allow an RBI double to Yuniesky Betancourt.  Ballgame.  I guess you could say the Royals were running up the score by adding a second run in the 1st.  That’s bush league.

ON THE HILL: Bartolo Colon did nothing to deserve this kind of treatment, aside from the rocky 1st inning, he allowed nothing to the Royals for the duration of his 7 innings aside from 5 of his 8 hits, and 1 more walk.  Andrew Carignan and Jerry Blevins combined to pitch a scoreless 8th inning with only a walk from Carignan.  It’s got to be tough to be an Athletics pitcher right now.

AT THE PLATE: 3 hits, 4 walks, still no runs.  What more can you say?  Yoenis Cespedes’ return to the Athletics failed to ignite the offense, but at this point it’s doubtful anything can do that.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Just when you think the A’s have hit rock bottom, they continue to tumble.  The bright side of things is that the Mariners lost as well, so the A’s are only in last place by percentage points yet again.  One has to wonder how long Billy Beane will sit back and watch his team show complete and utter ineptitude before making some tough decisions and really shaking the roster up.  Manny Ramirez was scratched from the Rivercats lineup again tonight, and has not shown an ability to even hit Triple A pitching, let alone be ready for Major League pitching.  There are beginning to be more and more whispers that Manny may never get that call back to the show that he so desperately wants.  Tomorrow at 11:10 AM PST the A’s will try once again to pull their bats out of the coma they’ve been in for the last 2+ weeks.  Brandon McCarthy returns to the mound after his shoulder has hopefully settled down, he checks in with a 3-3 record and a 2.95 ERA, his opponent will be Luke Hochevar who looks to use the struggling A’s as a confidence booster as he’s been knocked around a bit this season to the tune of a 3-5 record with a 6.19 ERA.  While we here at Swingin’ A’s don’t condone the sacrificing of poultry (unless it’s for a tasty meal), I encourage all A’s fans to appeal to the baseball Gods to help pull our boys out of the doldrums of this losing streak.  They need all the help they can get.

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