Saturday: Los Angeles 12, Oakland 3 (WPA Graph from Fangraphs)
Sunday: Los Angeles 4, Oakland 0 (WPA Graph from Fangraphs)
A's Current Record: 18-20
There's not much to say right now about the state of the A's other than their offense is performing terribly, scoring a total of 5 runs in their last 5 games, all losses. Sure, they're not this bad, but this is a very weak offense, with no regular slugging over .400 (Eric Patterson is at a fluky .507), and only one (Barton) with an OBP over .340. The returns of Cust and Suzuki should help, but these type of stretches will happen from time to time with the way the offense is constructed.
Saturday's game started well, thanks to a Howie Kendrick error and a Eric Patterson home run, but the A's quickly saw the 2-0 lead evaporate as Tyson Ross tired -- after retiring the first 11 batters, he wouldn't get another out, giving up 2 singles and a Kendry Morales 3-run bomb. The Angels then put up 9 runs on Jerry Blevins and the now-departed Chad Gaudin, making it into a laugher.
Sunday's game was at least a quick death, as the A's mustered only 5 runners off of Joel Pineiro, who went the distance. It was 1-0 until the 6th, when Bobby Abreu's 2 run HR clinched it. It speaks to the state of the A's offense that a 3 run lead felt about the same as the 9 run lead the day before.
The silver lining of the weekend would have to be Trevor Cahill's performance --- 7 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, and most importantly 0 walks and 15 groundouts (vs. 3 flyouts). This is the type of start that Cahill can potentially give every time out, and while his last 2 starts were as good superficially, this was by far the best he's looked all year. Even a 4.50 ERA or so from him will help stem the loss of Duchscherer and this was an encouraging step. Also encouraging is that the Rangers also got swept, leaving the A's still only 2 games back with the Mariners coming to town.
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