Not since May 2002 have the A’s faced such uncertainty with their pitching staff. With Mark Mulder shut down for at least two weeks on the DL and Rich Harden showing growing pains, all of a sudden what looked like a big four starting pitching rotation has been reduced to Tim Hudson, Barry Zito and hope for the best.

The A’s do have the benefit of the schedule in their favor over the next two and one half weeks since they face Toronto this weekend (won’t be a cakewalk by any means), then come home for Baltimore and Tampa Bay before duplicating those two series right away on the East Coast the next week.

The offense will need to pick up the slack. The bullpen will have to be managed very carefully. The season has many twists and turns, no one can predict injuries, the A’s just got hit hard where they can least afford it.

Rich Harden presents another dilemma. What to do? As good as he looked earlier, that is how bad he looks now. He threw over two hundred pitches in his last nine innings coming into last night’s start, Thursday night he threw 78 more in 2 2/3 innings. He probably would benefit from bullpen work until he finds his mechanical groove once again.

The A’s probably will give him one more start against Baltimore next week, a low rent outfit, to see if he can dominate the Orioles. If he doesn’t do well in that start, it’s anyones guess what the next step will be.

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As the season turns into the home stretch the good teams are putting their best players on the field and they are responding.

The A’s bullpen, a hearty three man bunch all season has come alive in Boston as all the relievers, save Jim Mecir, have gotten into the act.

You just can’t say enough about quality pitches in crucial situations. Chad Bradford, now Ricardo Rincon, and as always Keith Foulke, teeter on the brink of disaster almost every time on the hill. Yet when the chips are on the line, they throw pitches which turn into routine outs, ending rallies.

How much longer they can do this without being effected from daily use is anyone’s guess. If Chad Harville and Michael Neu come through more often, then the big three can continue to get the big outs.

The A’s rallied last night with only one walk in the entire game. A good sign for the hitters. When Byung Hyun Kim needed to make big pitches he didn’t, grooving an 0-2 pitch to Scott Hatteberg who hit a laser to right putting the A’s in front to stay.

Previous night, Scott Sauerbeck needed to throw strikes to Erubiel Durazo and Eric Chavez and couldn’t, two walks resulted, then Scott Williamson grooved an 0-2 pitch to Ramon Hernandez, three run homer, end of game.

When the Sox needed big hits, they weren’t there. The A’s pitchers consistently made quality, in your face type of pitches which ended the scoring chances.

That my friends is the difference in this series. The A’s get the job done with a minimum of flair. The Sox look good on paper, but when the game is on the line, they don’t produce.

Baseball has turned into a game of bullpens because starters rarely go more than seven innings, the A’s bull pen is clutch right now, Boston’s isn’t and that is the way the ball is bouncing with 34 games to go.

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What a night for Bay Area baseball fans. First the A’s snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, then the Giants tie the Braves on a wild pitch and then have an emotionally drained Barry Bonds hit one into the bay off of lefty specialist Raymond King to win the game.

Ramon Hernandez hit a game winning homer the impact of which on the A’s season could be as big as Terrence Long’s catch on a ball hit by Manny Ramirez last season robbing Ramirez of a game winning home run.

The A’s used that catch and win in Boston last August to propel themselves to the division title.

This homer by Hernandez came at the right time as the A’s were reeling from the injury to Mark Mulder and the two hit pitching of Derek Lowe.

Mulder has not been himself for the last week or so. Now he reveals that his hip tendinitis has been an issue since July 19th.

When injuries like this occur in baseball one of two things may happen.

Either the team deflates and goes into a tailspin or they pull together and some aspect of the team steps up to take up the slack.

Now, if Mulder is out for any prolonged period, the offense will have to shoulder more of a burden if the A’s are going to keep pace with Seattle and Boston.

Hits like Hernandez had last night go a long way.

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The last time the Mariners’ Ryan Franklin faced the Blue Jays, they knocked him all over the yard in Safeco Field. Tonight Kelvim Escobar, who won’t miss the A’s this weekend like he did last week in Oakland, pitches for the Blue Jays.

Ichiro is getting some play for AL MVP as scribes are finally noticing that no one on the so called winning teams is having a big season.

Carlos Delgado will end the year with 130 plus RBI and forty homers or more, and he stands to be the MVP unless Bret Boone or Ichiro go crazy and the Mariners hang on. Two big “ifs”.

This series could go a long way to settling the issues if one of the MVP candidadtes carries his club.

In Boston, the Sox will face Mark Mulder, coming off his worst outing in a while. Mulder couldn’t get the feel of the baseball in Oakland last week and must not get behind because the Red Sox are a totally different team in Fenway as is Oakland on the road.

If I was the A’s, I wouldn’t want to play catch up in Boston.

Derek Lowe pitched his best game, dominating the A’s and Erubiel Durazo in critical game turning moments. The A’s have been in big games over the past few seasons in August. Art Howe always had this team ready to play, tonight will go a long way in determining how this seven game trip turns out since Perdo Martinez, Roy Halladay, and Escobar are ahead in coming games.

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Around 38 games left for all
teams including the Mariners
and the Athletics and I have
a feeling this is going to
be decided the last three
games of the season here
at Safeco Field.

By Amaury Pi-Gonzalez
Seattle [Read more →]

Marty; You call it the road trip from hell and that says it all. The only bright spot is the quote from Schmidt to the effect that there is nothing wrong with his arm, just the eleven day inactivity thet resulted in the poor performance. One can only hope he is not whistling in the dark.

Writing about the Giants today is not the easy task it has been all year long.

Ed Stern has been analyzing the Giants chances all season long, today he explains the current state of the team.

Thanks, Ed,

Marty Lurie [Read more →]

The one player the A’s can least afford to lose, Tim Hudson, got smacked on the back of his pitching hand Saturday by a line drive off the bat of Dave Berg and now must hope that the team doctor has read the x rays of his valuable right hand correctly.

According to Hudson, the doctor said he has a deep bruise and no break in his pitching hand. Sounds similar to the original diagnosis that Curt Schilling received before further tests revealed his broken hand.

Only time will tell the extent of Hudson’s injury, but the pressure now is on Barry Zito to put the one bad inning that has plagued his latest starts behind him and step up in the A’s rotation.

Zito faces Roy Halladay today, a talented, yet understated righthander who wants the baseball every fourth day. Toronto probably will make an effort to resign Kelvim Escobar, then try a four man rotation next season.

In today’s world it is easier to come up with four starters than five, so JP Ricciardi, Toronto GM, wants to add another power pitcher and try to imitate the teams of yesterday who got by with only a four man starting rotation.

Halladay is the cornerstone of that plan.

Jose Guillen crushes mediocre pitchers, he doesn’t wait for a walk, and he has added life to the A’s lineup. I still think he would be better off hitting further down in the order where his homers can do some real damage.

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Last Sunday Mark Prior shut the Dodgers down in LA, which didn’t seem unusual because the Dodgers are known for their lack of offense.

Prior came back Friday and threw another complete game against the Dodgers beating them 2-1, to put the Cubs into the NL Central lead. Prior was even better on Friday.

Prior faced a tough situation in the eighth inning. Was the big righty tiring as LA had runners on first and third with one out and a run in already?

Pitching coach Larry Rothschild went to the hill to talk to his best pitcher (yes, better than Kerry Wood) with Shawn Green coming up.

Would the Cubs go to lefty Mike Remlinger since Jeromy Burnitz was on deck, another lefthanded hitter?

No chance. Prior stayed in and got Green on a harmless pop to short, then fanned Burnitz on a succession of 95 MPH fastballs, which were unhittable.

End of inning, end of Dodgers for the day.

Two things: One, Dusty Baker has complete confidence in this young man and two, Prior wants the ball late in the game, a trait I love to see in any young pitcher.

Houston lost to Cincinnati as its bullpen gave up six runs on seven hits in three innings. Guess who was in the game? Octavio Dotel, Billy Wagner, and Brad Lidge. Manager Jimy Williams has ridden this trio hard all year long, as I have pointed out many times, and they must be watched carefully down the stretch for signs of wear and tear (especially Lidge).

With a power rotation of Prior, Wood, Zambrano, and Clement maybe the Cubs will exorcise the ghosts of ’69 and wipe the memory of their fold up to the Mets and their strong armed guys Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, and Gary Gentry, this summer.

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The A’s lost to the Red Sox Thursday dropping one game behind the Sox with 41 games to go in the 2003 season.

The Red Sox simply have more weapons than the A’s do in the bullpen and on the bench. When Tim Wakefield left after six innings, the Sox paraded three relievers out to finish the game and still had four that they could go to with confidence, remaining in the pen.

The A’s went to the well and found the usual suspects available to finish the game after Ted Lilly’s excellent start. Chad Bradford, Ricardo Rincon, Keith Foulke, and Jim Mecir got the prime time assignments (they threw 87 pitches in 3 2/3 innings, it was ugly out there).

The A’s pen looked tired and had to dodge bullets once again just to get the chance to close the game in the ninth.

It was clear Bradford and Rincon were not sharp, Foulke was asked to go two innings once again, and Mecir pitched for the first time in two weeks.

Manny Ramirez took care of things with a game tying homer off Foulke in the ninth (Foulke should look to bounce a couple his way next time), and Mecir struggled with his 78 MPH change up which has been his out pitch this season.

Even with all of that if Ken Macha had some power on his bench he could have gotten an insurance run in the eighth which would have made the Ramirez homer meaningless.

In that inning, Frankie Menechino, Eric Byrnes, and Billy McMillon were no match for Alan Embree’s 93 MPH gas, so the boys left two in scoring position with none out, thus wasting a golden opportunity to ice the game.

Where is Olmedo Saenz when you need him?

Byrnes was terrific in May and June, right now he is barely a AAA player. The A’s need some righthanded punch off the bench to counter the lefty relievers that they will definitely see down the stretch.

Adam Piatt couldn’t pinch hit, so find someone that can for the next six weeks.

The Red Sox play big market baseball, the A’s don’t, but when you get this close to the finish line it is time to open the wallet because you can make the dough back in the postseason if you get there.

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The Red Sox not only play for their own professional pride, but they carry the expectations and hopes of every baseball fan in New England on their backs. It is quite a burden.

As a team they are dead serious in the clubhouse, no loud music, very few hijinks before the game. The media swarms around the players desperate for a quote or an insight into the day’s game. They hope for a few words from Pedro Martinez, which are not forthcoming, you see Pedro now boycotts the media in his home city.

Last night the Sox beat the A’s and you could just tell the pressure was off the Beantowners. Heck, they have a solid team, it’s just that every fan with a Boston accent is awaiting that fateful losing streak that will send the Sox home without a world championship once more extending the drought which began in 1918 (ever hear of the Curse of the Bambino).

Mark Mulder wasn’t at his best last night. He looked like he was searching for the correct pitch, looking for his pitcher’s touch.

Mulder had Manny Ramirez groping like a man in the dark when he threw two straight splitters with the bases loaded to bring the count to 3 and 2. Would Mulder dare to throw the free swinging Ramiez another pitch that would dart out of the strike zone?

Not last night, he went to a running outside fastball that missed badly, the runner from third waltzed in, and the Red sox world sensed the night would end differently.

It is important to point out one thing about the big three on the A’s. This spring was slightly different from the past. The team was supposed to open the season in Japan March 24 or so. Those games against Seattle were cancelled due to the war. The A’s pitchers have been on their regimen since February 8th, about ten days earlier than normal. Even though we haven’t seen any signs of fatigue from the big guys, it bears watching over the next few weeks to see if the early spring work might take its toll down the stretch.

What about the A’s offense?

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