Over the course of a 162-game schedule there are games that you're going to win that you probably shouldn't.  Especially if you have good pitching and defense and play solid fundamental baseball.  The A's did that tonight despite the rough night from Dana Eveland.  He somehow made it through 5 1/3 innings despite giving up nine hits, four walks and zero strikeouts.  He only gave up three runs because of some stellar defense behind him.

I think the difference often between a team that can hang close to a division leader and the last place team is easy.  The Mariners made some very crucial mistakes tonight, possibly none bigger than Adrian Beltre not touching third base after a fly ball was caught by the A's and he scrambled to get back to second.  It was the top of the fifth and at the time the M's had Beltre on second and Sexson on first with one out.  Johjima flew out to Carlos Gonzalez and the A's dugout noticed that Beltre missed touching third on his way back to second.  The bottom of that same inning the A's took the lead thanks to a Wes Bankston home run, a Gregorio Petit double and a Ryan Sweeney single. Then in the top of the sixth, when Eveland was in trouble again and loaded the bases with one out, The Terminator, I mean Brad Ziegler came in to induce an inning-ending double play on two pitches.  Congratulations to Ziggy who will now be in the A's record books as the pitcher to go the longest to start his career in Oakland history without allowing a run.  

The A's squeezed a win out Eveland, who was lucky to come out of his outing with a victory.  By the way, it wasn't all that surprising that the Mariners whacked Eveland around a bit.  I was looking at their stats during the game and they're hitting .283 as a team versus lefties and .248 against righties. I also wasn't surprised that the A's were getting dominated by Jarrod Washburn since they're the opposite way around, hitting better against righties than lefties.  They just seem to face quite a few lefties and they're a lot more vulnerable to them since they lost Frank Thomas and Mike Sweeney.

Huston Street did make it interesting at the end with Ichiro ending the game in scoring position just itching to tie the game.  But Street closed the door.

Impressively, the A's are having success with names that I didn't anticipate having a great impact on their year.  Wes Bankston, Ryan Sweeney and even Ziggy.  Regardless, let's make this very interesting for Billy Beane and company at the end of July.

Over the course of a 162-game schedule there are games that you're going to win that you probably shouldn't.  Especially if you have good pitching and defense and play solid fundamental baseball.  The A's did that tonight despite the rough night from Dana Eveland.  He somehow made it through 5 1/3 innings despite giving up nine hits, four walks and zero strikeouts.  He only gave up three runs because of some stellar defense behind him.

I think the difference often between a team that can hang close to a division leader and the last place team is easy.  The Mariners made some very crucial mistakes tonight, possibly none bigger than Adrian Beltre not touching third base after a fly ball was caught by the A's and he scrambled to get back to second.  It was the top of the fifth and at the time the M's had Beltre on second and Sexson on first with one out.  Johjima flew out to Carlos Gonzalez and the A's dugout noticed that Beltre missed touching third on his way back to second.  The bottom of that same inning the A's took the lead thanks to a Wes Bankston home run, a Gregorio Petit double and a Ryan Sweeney single. Then in the top of the sixth, when Eveland was in trouble again and loaded the bases with one out, The Terminator, I mean Brad Ziegler came in to induce an inning-ending double play on two pitches.  Congratulations to Ziggy who will now be in the A's record books as the pitcher to go the longest to start his career in Oakland history without allowing a run.  

The A's squeezed a win out Eveland, who was lucky to come out of his outing with a victory.  By the way, it wasn't all that surprising that the Mariners whacked Eveland around a bit.  I was looking at their stats during the game and they're hitting .283 as a team versus lefties and .248 against righties. I also wasn't surprised that the A's were getting dominated by Jarrod Washburn since they're the opposite way around, hitting better against righties than lefties.  They just seem to face quite a few lefties and they're a lot more vulnerable to them since they lost Frank Thomas and Mike Sweeney.

Huston Street did make it interesting at the end with Ichiro ending the game in scoring position just itching to tie the game.  But Street closed the door.

Impressively, the A's are having success with names that I didn't anticipate having a great impact on their year.  Wes Bankston, Ryan Sweeney and even Ziggy.  Regardless, let's make this very interesting for Billy Beane and company at the end of July.

Yes, folks, it's that time of year again.  Time for me to hand out my half year grades for our Oakland Athletics.  I'm going to do it a little differently this year.  In past seasons, I'd give it out to individuals, but I'm going to give it to the different portions of the team.  I'm going to break it out into starting pitching, relief pitching, offense, managing and front office.  I'll give my grade and my thinking as to why that grade applies and then standouts and disappointments.

As always, this is not scientific by any means.  Much of it has to do with the expectations that I had for that aspect of the A's I mentioned.

Starting pitching - A:  The A's started the season with a lot of question marks in their rotation.  I honestly thought that the rotation would include Lenny DiNardo and Kirk Saarloos right about now.  I figured Harden and Duchscherer would not have lasted and the emergency plan of DiNardo and Saarloos would be in full motion while we were waiting for Brett Anderson and Trevor Cahill to make it to the pros.  Granted, both have missed time with injuries in the first half, but they've also pitched a lot more than I thought they were.  As a matter of fact, the A's starting pitching team ERA is 3.48, the best in the entire majors.  The starting pitching has been absolutely, positively stellar and probably the biggest reason the A's are still within shouting distance of the division-leading Angels.  They've also been able to do it with two rookies in Greg Smith and Dana Eveland.  It'll be interesting to see how those two guys hold up over the second half.  The irony of all this is that the pitcher who the A's tagged with the "ace" tag before the season started happens to be their worst starter statistically right now.

Starting pitching standouts:  Rich Harden, Justin Duchscherer, Dana Eveland, Greg Smith

Starting pitching disappointments:  Joe Blanton

Relief pitching - A- :  If the major reason the A's have been winning is their starters, the relief pitching is the minor reason.  The A's have the sixth best ERA out of their relievers in all of baseball.  They've also done it with a cast of largely no names and folks that people didn't expect to be as good as they have been.  Santiago Casilla had a Dennis Eckersley-like start to his year.  Andrew Brown was fantastic.  Joey Devine was spectacular.  Brad Ziegler came from Sacramento to become integral.  The known quantities like Embree, Foulke and Street suddenly seemed to be the ones that made me more nervous than the less proven guys.  Still, the pen has been relatively solid.  Huston Street hasn't been as good as I'd like but I do suspect that he's been pitching through various injuries this year.

Relief pitching standouts:  Joey Devine, Brad Ziegler, Andrew Brown, Santiago Casilla, Chad Gaudin (he also could've made the starting pitcher portion too), Keith Foulke (yes, he's been good even though he scares me to death at times),

Relief pitching disappointments:  Huston Street

Offense - D+ :  The A's have the 25th best batting average in all of baseball.  A team that prides itself on having patience at the plate is 16th in all of baseball in on-base percentage.  And let's not talk about power.  The team is 26th in all of baseball in slugging percentage.  Not surprisingly, the team is 10th in the AL in runs scored.  If this team had just average hitting and the starting pitching continues to prove its might, the A's could truly be a contending team this year.  Now I suspected we'd have this issue, especially with a lot of very young guys getting their first true extended major league experience.  Carlos Gonzalez, Daric Barton, Kurt Suzuki and Travis Buck were all likely going to be a foundation of the A's offense.  I expected them to have ups and downs, but for Barton and Buck, it's mostly been downs.  Jack Hannahan was getting his first extended experience.  Jack Cust really only had last season in the pros.  So a lot of the offense was built on wild cards.  One major known entity was Frank Thomas who the A's picked up for a piece of Hubba Bubba and a used Hyundai when the Blue Jays dumped him.  Not surprisingly, the Blue Jays are one of the teams who has scored fewer runs than the A's in the AL.  Still, I suspected the A's hitting was going to be mediocre, but it's been downright bad at points.  There are a few guys who've been right about where I expected them to be, such as Mark Ellis and even Bobby Crosby (although he has been a bit better than I expected).

Offensive standouts:  Kurt Suzuki, Ryan Sweeney, Jack Cust (he does have an .823 OPS even if his BA isn't impressive), Frank Thomas

Offensive disappointments:  Travis Buck (possibly my personal biggest disappointment), Daric Barton (yeah he's really young, but he raised hopes of something special at the end of the year last year), Emil Brown (I expected him to at least hit left-handed pitching), Chris Denorfia (I thought he was going to be the regular guy in center field)

Managing - B :  I still hadn't made up my mind about Geren before this season started.  He hasn't done anything patently stupid and he's more flexible with his lineup card than Macha could've ever dreamed of being.  The problem is that when he's filling out that lineup card, he's often dealing with many of his best hitters not being there.  Ryan Sweeney has been arguably the A's best hitter this year and yet, he's been in and out of the lineup due to injury issues.  Mike Sweeney was hitting well and now he has injured knees.  Frank Thomas was getting in a groove and then he went down.  Eric Chavez has just recently become a regular in the A's lineup and he doesn't look 100 percent yet.  Still the starting pitching has made Geren look good.  He's made smart decisions for the most part with the bullpen.  Although I would really like to see him start to trust some of the younger guys a little more.  Foulke always looks like he's about to give up a bomb.  And Embree is always all about the heat, it's just a matter of whether someone gets geared up enough for it. One thing that I'm sure is a popular topic of discussion these days among the A's front office and Geren is what to do about Joe Blanton.  After yesterday's performance, I really think the A's have to think about replacing him as a starter, at least temporarily, with Chad Gaudin.  Still, given what the A's have had to deal with this year in terms of the injection of youth, unexpectedly bad struggles of guys like Buck and Barton, the myriad of injuries in the bullpen and to key offensive pieces, Geren has done a nice job of keeping a team that wasn't expected to compete in the running.  Much of that has to do with the starting pitching, mind you, but Geren has also done a pretty damn good job of handling the bullpen.

Front office - A- :  I know a lot of folks are going to automatically charge me with just giving Beane some undeserved praise here, but I honestly think that this could be the best job Beane has done in his time with the A's.  Yes, the team is still offensively deficient.  But it also has the best starting pitching in baseball right now and that's WITH the "ace" being the worst statistically on staff.  Danny Haren was awesome.  No one can dispute that.  But the A's have three significant chips already contributing at the major league level.  They also have a ton of talent in their minor league system now.  I'm not sure there are too many other front office groups in baseball who could simultaneously rebuild a farm system while keeping the major league team competitive for a division crown.  The biggest thing Beane has done is to build a team with depth.  So when an Eric Chavez can't play for months at a time, Jack Hannahan is waiting to take over.  Earlier in the season when Barton was struggling at first, Mike Sweeney saw some time there.  Greg Smith stepped into the rotation when Harden and Duchscherer went down.  Gaudin would probably be a top three starter for most rotations.  Yet he's sixth on the A's depth chart.  Brad Ziegler is there when the A's have bullpen issues.  Beane is nothing if not adaptive.  Yes, Emil Brown is seeming like a mistake right now, but he also had a ton of key RBIs at the beginning of the season when seemingly no one was batting in runs.  And Beane deserves a ton of credit for getting Frank Thomas for nothing.  Is the offense still a gong show?  Yes.  But Beane has done enough to cover up for the shortcomings by building the best rotation in baseball and a very steady bullpen to back it up.

Overall - A- : Honestly I wrestled with this one for a while.  I wavered between a B, B+, A- and an A.  But ultimately for me it came down to expectations.  I did not expect this team to be here halfway through the season.  I expected them to be in a distant third or even last place in the division.  But the starting pitching has kept this team afloat and right in the thick of the AL West despite low to no expectations from most folks. And my expectations were pretty low heading into 2008.  I thought I'd just enjoy watching some young kids come into their own.  Instead the team has fought and scrapped its way into second place in the division.

So there you have it.  My first half grades for our Oakland Athletics in 2008.  What grades would you give and why?  Who has been a disppointment so far and who has been a standout?

Better yet, give me some predictions for the second half of 2008.  Will the A's hang with the Angels or will they fade?  Will Harden and/or Duchscherer be sent to a contender for a truckload of quality prospects?  And maybe you even want to throw in the win total for 2008.  If I had to guess, I think the A's wind up around 86 wins and I do think either Harden or Duke will be dealt.

Man, you know Bobby Crosby should really no longer be public enemy number one around AN.  All right, I know he isn't.  That's fallen into Emil Brown's lap.  But Crosby did something he needs to do more often if he's going to continue to evolve into the MVP-type player that all the experts were once predicting for the A's shortstop.  He drove a pitch to right field to plate Kurt Suzuki for a dramatic, bottom-of-the-ninth walk off win against the Detroit Tigers.

The A's had made a decision right before the hit to actually have Jack Hannahan bunt to move Suzuki to second and put him in scoring position.  I personally would've liked to see Hannahan have an AB right there simply because Hannahan is such a high OBP guy, he likely could've moved Suzuki into scoring position any way.  But that's water under the bridge because the A's won.  And heck, an Oakland Athletic besides Mark Ellis proved that he could actually execute a bunt effectively.

The game looked grim to me going in.  Rogers was so dominant at the Coliseum.  Harden had been hit hard by several Tigers in the past.  But Harden was simply amazing.  He worked in a lot more splitters than I've seen him use in quite a while.  He worked it effectively, racking up nine strikeouts.  The Tigers hitters looked perplexed by Harden up until the sixth inning where, maybe as Harden was wearing down a bit, Curtis Granderson hit a bomb, Carlos Guillen whacked a double and the A's walked Miguel Cabrera to pitch to rookie Jeff Larish.  I thought it was a smart move at the time, but it backfired as Larish took a Harden fastball to left field to help the Tigers take a 2-1 lead.  Harden also threw a whopping 115 pitches.  I was getting more and more nervous as his pitch count went up.  I kept expecting his arm to come flying off with one of those last pitches, but alas, it didn't.

The thing about Harden that might be frustrating both to us and to him is that he's simply not the kind of pitcher who can pitch to contact like say, Justin Duchscherer.  Harden's stuff is simply too baffling and has too much movement for him to count on opponents being able to get contact.  That means that he's going to have high pitch counts often early in the game.  Harden is simple in that the only pitches anyone ever seems to hit off him are his fastballs and occasionally the hanging changeup or splitter (that's rare).  He is the kind of guy who makes you ooooh and ahhhhh when he pitches, but that remarkable stuff will make it hard for him to ever get a complete game.  I forgot this because it had been so long since I'd seen him string a few starts together.

The A's came back and tied it when Daric Barton hit a long bomb off of Kenny Rogers and Rogers, finding out that A's fans aren't very fond of him, eventually left to a chorus of boos in the Coliseum.  Someone brought this up in one of the threads that the A's go up to the plate looking to walk.  Well, that happened in the eighth when Barton came back up with the bases loaded.  Barton got the count to 3-0 in his favor and let the 3-1 pitch go by.  He also then let a fairly hittable 3-1 pitch go by as well until he actually flew out to the Tigers' centerfielder.  I actually liked the approach simply because you had to believe that the pitcher, Bobby Seay, was going to have to come with the fastball on 3-2, so force him to throw three straight strikes.  It was a good approach because Seay looked like he was simply all over the zone.

So the A's again ride some great pitching from Harden, Keith Foulke out of the pen and Huston Street in the ninth (his fastball was once again hitting 95 and the slider had bite) to win.  I personally love the great pitching.  It had vacated the team for a few days there, but then again, Arlington does that to the best of pitchers.  The lack of hitting will probably give me a coronary eventually, but the great pitching gives this team a good chance to win every night.  Even against a team as good as the Tigers (yes, I still believe that team is really good).  And that's all you can ask for.  Right?

The A's win against the O's tonight 2-1 in the bottom of the 10th inning on Emil Brown's RBI single to center field.  The game went to the 10th inning on a blown save from Huston Street after a brilliantly pitched game by A's starter Dana Eveland.

So on a night when two MLB Davids faced off against one another, it was the guy that many A's fans didn't even want on the team in the first place who was the star of the game offensively.  Emil Brown scored the run to give the A's the lead and more importantly, wound up with the big single to plate Daric Barton to win the game for the A's.

This game was amazing in many ways and it's sad that so few people are showing up to watch this team play baseball.  They say baseball can be a game of inches, well consider all that happened this evening and dare to argue otherwise:

• Early in the game, both Mike Sweeney and Frank Thomas both looked like they hit home runs but the heavy Oakland night air knocked both balls down.
• Jack Cust got four strikes in an at-bat on a mistake by home plate umpire Ed Hickox, who also had one of those wild, completely unpredictable strike zones that led to Mark Ellis nearly being thrown out for arguing a called third strike (Bob Geren jumped in and saved Ellis from being tossed by a millisecond).
• In the seventh inning, Emil Brown just barely avoided getting doubled off second base on a Crosby fly out to center field.  He wound up scoring the only run for the A's in the first nine innings on two infield hits by Jack Hannahan and Rajai Davis.
• The top of the eighth the Orioles came so close to tying the game but an excellent play by Ryan Sweeney calling off Mark Ellis on a pop up that would've scored Adam Jones from third had Ellis caught it while moving back into the outfield.  Nick Markakis then grounded to Crosby to end the Orioles threat.  The infield hit by Payton that inning was questionable as to whether Payton was safe or not.  But as I said, this was a game of inches.
  
• Ramon Hernandez wound up tying the game for the Orioles in the top of the ninth with a ball to Bobby Crosby that could've possibly gone home had Kurt Suzuki stepped out from behind the plate and given Croz that option.  For some reason, Kurt seemed to concede that run. 
  
• In the bottom of the ninth, Brown nearly had another A's infield hit to lead off the inning when a ball rolled up the third base line and rolled foul by less than an inch and stopped.  Brown still walked, but the A's couldn't get him home.

You could not ask for better pitching from Dana Eveland than the A's got tonight.  The guy pitched brilliantly, rebounding from his tough outing against the Angels.  He was great in pounding the zone and working the home plate umpire's wild zone.  It's too bad that it was all for nothing.

The A's pen was once again great tonight, outside of Street and like I said in the comments, I thought Huston had a couple of bogus calls against him in the Melvin Mora AB, which turned into the tying run.  Street looked like he hit the outside corner on Mora twice but didn't get the call and that's when you could tell that both him and Suzuki were trying to figure out what to throw.  Street isn't the overpowering guy that some closers are and he needs that outside corner in order to be effective.

But Eveland, Devine, Embree and Brown were all good enough tonight to get the A's the win thanks to a little help from Clutchy McClutch (Emil).

By the way, I've got to admit that I got a few goosebumps in watching Chad Bradford strike out Daric Barton with that frisbee slider of his.  It reminded me of good times in the green and gold and he was always one of my very favorite A's pitchers back in the day.  It's one of the few moments that I've ever smiled when an A's player struck out.

The A's super duper funkalicious all-righty lineup wasn't nearly as interesting as I had hoped as Garrett Olson kept them pretty much off balance all night.  He kind of reminded me of hybrid of Greg Smith and Young Barry Zito (not the abomination that pitches for the Giants now).  He's a tough good young pitcher.  But I'm not sure how effective this all righty lineup is.  They don't seem to be fairing all that well against lefties.  Or at least as good as I'd like.

Ultimately, in a matchup of two Davids, it was fitting that Emil Brown, ManGod, was the one who chucked the heaviest stone.