Game #8) W 8-1- 4/13/15 (Mon):
Highlights:
- Dominant pitching performance from Scott Kazmir and friends
- A's knocked around Scott Feldman and the bullpen for 12 hits
- Everyone got a base-knock except for Reddick, but he still hit the ball hard
- Canha and Zobrist both stayed hot and hit doubles
- Lawrie, Semien, and Country Breakfast all homered and they were all firsts with the A's, Butler's homerun cleared the stadium and is probably somewhere lost in orbit right now (haha)
- The A's were sharp defensively, Super Sam Fuld, Brett Lawrie, and Josh Reddick had some nice plays in the field
- The bullpen got the job done: 3.0 IP 2 H 0 ER 1 BB 3 K - Abad, Otero, Chavez
- Kazmir looked a little injured in the 4th inning, but stayed in the game and pitched well
- Vogt rolled his ankle coming out of the box, but he said that his ankle has been bothering him ever since last season and he's wrapped it everyday this season
Game #9) W 4-0 - 4/14/15 (Tue):
Highlights:
- Graveman had a much better start than his debut with the A's, Melvin was pleased with the way he was able to maneuver out of trouble, he had a 9:1 GO/FO ratio, 96 pitches in just 5.1 IP 4 H 0 ER 4 BB 3 K, got his first Major League 'W'
- Fuld stayed hot with two doubles (one oppo)
- Butler continued his hitting streak (9) with an opposite field double
- 1st inning fundamental baseball: Fuld doubled, Canha moved him over, Butler drove him in
- Vogt had some good ABs, especially with 2-strikes
- Reddick solid contact 2-strike RBI single, opposite field hit
- Lawrie got the A's first stolen base of the season
- Bullpen - solid: 3.2 IP 4 H 0 ER 0 BB 4 K - O'Flaherty, Otero, Abad, Clippard
- Graveman did get himself into trouble at times, threw lots of pitches in few innings, not much other than that... the A's need to get on a roll!
Game #10) L 6-1 - 4/15/15 (Wed):
Highlights:
- Butler 10 game hit streak - nice
- Semien had a hustle infield RBI single for our only run
- A's had long AB's and got McHugh's pitch count up
- Collin McHugh beat the A's: 5.2 IP 6 H 1 ER 0 BB 11 K
- Jed Lowrie might be another mortal enemy of the A's, along with Chris Carter: 2-3 2B, HR, 3 RBI
- Blown chance in the 2nd inning, first and second no out, Vogt up, 3-2 pitch, check swing strikeout, Vogt said after the game he was really beating himself up after that AB, Lawrie struck out after, then Sogard singled - bases loaded because Billy Butler (on second base) is/was too dang slow and couldn't score from first, only scored one run that inning
- Pomeranz was just out-pitched by McHugh, he was locating decently, but the 'Stros were just hitting
- Bullpen was not sharp: 3.0 IP 2 H 2 ER 1 BB 6 SO but 2 HR, one from Scribner, one from Alvarez
Game #11) L 4-6 - 4/17/15 (Fri):
Highlights:
- Butler's return to KC was very nice - standing ovation for his first AB
- In the 2nd: Ike single, Vogt double, Lawrie RBI bunt, yes a bunt!
- In the 4th: Back to back yakkers by Ike, and Vogt
- In the 7th: Vogt hit his second HR of the game, 1st 2-run HR of his career
- A's really battled, back and forth game, playoff type-atmosphere
- This game was haunting
- It felt eerily similar to the Wild Card game... especially when Salvador Perez hit a hard one-hopper down the line in left field that was (this time) deflected off of Lawrie's glove at third... ugh
- The Royals battered Sonny Gray around for a career high, 11 hits; In total the Royals out-hit the A's 15:8, with 1 2B, 1 3B, 0 HR and (do the math) 13 singles, most of which were seeing-eye
- Sonny said that if he had to face the Royals again tomorrow, he wouldn't have changed a thing with the way he pitched, they simply hit well, and found lots of holes
- Lawrie v. Escobar drama: runner on first, there was a ground ball to the left of Moustakas at third, hit by Reddick, Escobar (SS) went to cover second base because he was shifted in that direction, the Moose threw the ball to Escobar who was on top of the bag, Lawrie slid hard, feet-first into Escobar, taking out his legs/knees/ankles and Escobar had to leave the game, fans were extremely unhappy with Lawrie's hard slide, Lawrie was called out, Melvin challenged the play, it appeared that Lawrie had clearly beat the throw, but he was still ruled out.
- A's bullpen sucked again: In the 8th, tied 4-4, Otero pitching (he had the loss in the Wild Card game) Salvy led off with a single, Dyson pinch ran, Paulo Orlando (I don't like him) hit a triple scoring Dyson, 4 out of his 5 hits this season have been triples... yeah. Infante sac fly, 4-6 Royals, and of course the bullpen slammed the door in the 9th (Holland)
Game #12) W 5-0 - 4/18/15 (Sat):
Highlights (mostly):
- Saturday was all A's!
- 5th shut out of the season by the A's
- Jesse Hahn induced 13-3 GO/FO, 1 BB 0 K, 3 H, very nice start but had to come out early because of a blister on the index finger of his throwing hand: 5.1 IP 65 pitches total
- Jesse Chavez came in and pitched an impressive line: 3.2 IP 4 H 1 BB 6 K, notching his second save of his career
- The A's scored all of their runs in the 4th inning on an "I believe in Stephen Vogt" (stay hot) double to the opposite field gap which scored Super Sam Fuld, next, Billy Butler continued his hot hitting streak, now at 12 games, which drove in Vogt, Josh Reddick put the finishing touches on the victory by blasting a 3-run monster homerun into deep right field
- Controversy and Revenge: Yordano Ventura, the Royals young starter, fired a 99 MPH fastball at Brett Lawrie which hit him in the elbow, as retaliation for his hard slide into Escobar, the Royals shortstop, in the previous game, he was probably also pissed because he had just given up the 3-run homer to Reddick. Lawrie, really, 'took it like a man' and dropped his bat, and made his way down to first base. In the meantime, the crowd was going nuts, both benches were cleared, Ventura was tossed from the game, and as a result, the Royals 'got even'. The most important thing for the A's, was that nobody got hurt.
- Nothing really, other than the Lawrie-Escobar-Ventura scuffle... things are even right?
- There were some miscommunications between Lawrie and Escobar, Lawrie said he sent an apology text to Escobar, but Escobar said he never got it and he said that Lawrie either had the wrong number or an old phone number... childish games. Things should be fine now.
Game #13) L 2-4 - 4/19/15 (Sunday rubber game):
Highlights:
- So glad that Lawrie did not get hit by that 100 MPH fastball in the back/head/anywhere...
- Baseball-wise: The A's had a 2-1 lead going into the 8th inning, we scored both of our runs on singles by Big Ben Zobrist, one being an opposite field RBI single, and the other a single to center, he was 2-2 with 2 RBIs and a walk today
- Scott Kazmir pitched a great game, 7.1 IP 6 H 2 ER (really should have only been one) 1 BB 5 K 103 pitches, 20/29 first pitch strikes... I feel that maybe Melvin should have just kept Kaz in to finish the 8th instead of putting in the lefty, Eric O'Flaherty
- In the first inning, Scott Kazmir let a fastball get away from him which hit Lorenzo Cain around the ankle area. The Royals' manager, Ned Yost, was ejected for arguing and many more members of the Royals were thrown out later in the game. Anyone with any baseball logic would tell you that Kazmir did not hit Lorenzo Cain intentionally. If Kazmir wanted to get revenge... for the revenge that the Royals got for the Lawrie-Escobar-Ventura ordeal, then the Kaz would have beaned Cain at a more appropriate time in the game. Ideally, like the Royals did, *Kazmir* would want to get revenge if the A's are getting blown out, or if he's already gone deep into the ballgame so the bullpen wouldn't have to suffer. Kaz did not. In the top of the 8th inning, flamethrower, Kelvin Herrera fired a fastball at 100 MPH at Lawrie's head and upper back area. The pitch went behind him. The pitch was intentional. I'll talk about this more in the Wrap-Up section of this article.
- If you are interested in reading more about the Lawrie situation, Athleticsnation wrote some very well-written pieces that are in-depth and detailed, so visit athleticsnation.com if you wish!
- For the third time in the last four games, the bullpen was not sharp: Eric O'Flaherty, again, gave the Royals a 3-run 8th inning, 1 inherited run, and 2 earned, even before getting an out.
- Cain (of course) got a big RBI double to tie the game, scoring Orlando, and Morales drove in a pair with a double off the wall in center.
- The A's should have won this game. The bullpen blew it (again). But we can let this one slide. The dirty play from the Royals will come back around at some point or another.
Wrap-Up & Next Week:
The A's are sitting in second place at 6-7 behind the first place Astros whom, with no disrespect, will not be in first place after game 162. With the exceptions of the guys who were already on the DL prior to the season, the A's are healthy. They haven't had any major injuries. They haven't had to put anyone on the DL so far. So... so far, so good. We went 3-3 this week. 2-1 against the Astros, won the series, good. Got beat 2 games to 1 against KC, the last game of the series was trash. So be it. It's a long season, and in my opinion, the A's got some good Karma coming their way, at least, better than the Royals. Hopefully the baseball Gods will acknowledge the situation and will reward the team who deserves it. Brett Lawrie. From the get-go, we knew that Lawrie was an all-out, "RED BULL" type of player, but we didn't know much about his character. We knew that when he left Toronto, a 7-year old girl was in tears seeing her favorite player go. That doesn't happen to every player who gets traded away. Brett Lawrie has handled this overblown, childish, and ridiculous situation to the best of his ability. He got Escobar's phone number from 1B Eric Hosmer, and sent him an apology text which Escobar, first of all rejected, and said that Lawrie's slide was intentional, and denied that he even received the text! The Royals 'got even' with Lawrie in game 2 of the series. Yordano Ventura hit Lawrie with a 99 MPH fastball in the elbow, it looked like Lawrie had an elbow pad on, but he did not. Lawrie essentially had no reaction, and he went to first base under his own will and power, and was guided to first by Hosmer and Salvy Perez. The KC series was a mess. We got 1 game, and we'll see them again later this season at home (June 26-28). There didn't need to be any bad blood between these two competitive ball clubs. Dating back to the hard-fought, heart-crushing, soul-bending, life-changing Wild Card game... which to me, without bias (sorta) was the most entertaining game, just as entertaining as Game 7 of the W.S... both results were equally as painful, the Royals and the A's shouldn't hate each other! Fans, players, coaches. I just shake my head at the situation. I am proud of Brett Lawrie. I am proud to call him and Oakland Athletic, and I bet he is proud to be an Oakland Athletic. On the other hand, I'm not so sure how many Royals fans are as proud to call Kelvin Herrera, who deserves a suspension, fine, worse, a Royal. Him and Escobar are now Royal pains to the A's. Ugh. Glad Lawrie isn't hurt. On to Anaheim to play the Halos in a 4 game series, then we'll come back home and face the Astros in a 3 game series. Go A's. Yay Lawrie.