The Deafening Silence in Oakland: Athletics Drop to 0-2
By Sean Davis
Well, it’s safe to say the season has not gone as planned through two games. The Athletics are 0-2 and have tallied a total of 6 hits, and have scored just a single run. They get a free pass for the first game against Felix Hernandez, he’s always tough on the A’s, and he’s truly one of the best pitchers in the game today. Tonight’s game though is a different story. Hisashi Iwakuma is nowhere near the established pitcher that Felix is, so his dominance over the Athletics is difficult to stomach.
This is the A’s celebrating a run, the only run they’ve scored in 2013. (Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports)
Everything I say is taken with a grain of salt the size of Yoenis Cespedes‘ bicep, but the Athletics need to snap out of this funk real quick. They’ve come out with the same lineup two days in a row, and have gotten nothing that amounts to a legitimate rally out of that lineup. Tomorrow’s lineup figures to have a different look versus the left hander Joe Saunders. Chances are we’ll see Derek Norris, Scott Sizemore, and Chris Young in there somewhere. Hopefully the three of them can shake things up and get the sputtering offense going a little bit.
What’s tricky about this part of the season, much like Spring Training, is figuring out what you can put stock in from what’s taken place so far, and what you have to disregard.
The bats are going to come around, there’s really no doubt about that. Right now though you look at the lineup and you’ll see a bunch of “.000” all throughout the team. The fact that this is taking place at the very beginning of the season amplifies the problem. If it were happening in the middle of July, it wouldn’t be good, but it would not have the same affect on the psyche of the Athletics fanbase.
This evening the Houston Astros came within one out of having the second perfect game thrown against them in the last year. Yu Darvish just missed out on the history that Matt Cain experienced last season. The Astros ended up with two hits tonight, the A’s had three. That’s a bad sign when you outhit a team that came within an out of a perfect game by one.
Not to worry though, we haven’t even taken the panic button out of its packaging yet. It’s April 2nd and the Athletics bats have gone completely silent, but soon enough the bats will start to make noise. Perhaps someone like Joe Saunders who relies much more on control than stuff will be a more favorable matchup for this team. While its important not to overreact to the first two games of 2013, it’s also important to not let this snowball and turn into a long losing streak that can put the team in a deep hole before the season really gets under way.
PS: Don’t get me started on the walks the pitching staff is issuing.