This Week in Baseball 5/6/08

Well, it's been more than a week, but really, the last week or so is all I can remember of the multitude of games we watch or see bits and parts of while Mr. Hendricks' keeps his hand firmly on the remote control.  The A's, to every one's surprise and to others' delight, are playing better than .500 baseball.  So are, for that matter, the Twins, but their division has had a very slow start:  the Tigers are still having troubles (thank God they let go of Jacque Jones!) and the Indians' pitching staff still is shaky.  The A's salvaged one game from their series with the Mariners last Sunday, April 27th, and what a win it was.



Felix Hernandez, know as King Felix (one of the few nicknames you'll see here not personally bestowed by me), kept the A's off balance for six innings, striking out ten batters but walking four.  The Mariners announcers were yapping on and on about what a masterful performance it was, and that's why when it all fell apart, it was that much sweeter.  Not to dis King Felix, but really, walking four batters?  And he was already at one hundred pitches when he started the sixth.  He was doing a good job keeping the A's off the bases, but really, "masterful" it was not.  I've seen masterful, and it usually comes with the name of Johan Santana (god rest his Shea Stadium soul).  And the King was guilty of some poor showmanship:  when he finished the previous innings with a strikeout (desperately needed, I might add) he stalked off the mound pumping his fist.  That's like a batter standing outside the box admiring his shot to the seats.  Not nice, and be careful:  the next time up, the ball is going to be thrown at your head.  So when the Felix show began its painful but inexorable decline, it was delightful.  The A's won 4-2, after being shut out for five innings.  It was odd to watch Hernandez give it up, and to watch the manager and pitching coach watch him give it up.  I mean, the man had already thrown one hundred pitches.  Apparently, the pitching coach came to the mound and asked how Hernandez felt.  He said he felt good, and so he was left in to take the loss.



In a side note, I want it on the record that I adore Ichiro Suzuki.  I love everything about him:  his little sleeve pull at the plate, the way he's already running to first base as he swings the bat, the ballet-like fielding in center.  He floats over to the ball as if he were picking flowers or playing croquet.  Torii Hunter was wonderful to watch all those years with the Twins:  he was a movie star slash stunt man in center field, and it was dazzling to see him leap and dive.  Ichiro is a different animal.  He just gracefully appears out of nowhere, not even out of breath, while making a spectacular play look effortless.  Ichiro is quoted as saying something to the effect that sheer power doesn't impress him, but grace and intelligence does.



It has been exhilarating and frankly, a bit disturbing, to see the A's play so well this early in the season, and in this season especially, since they have been clear that they are "rebuilding" this year.  When teams say that they're rebuilding, you can count on frustrating games, disappointing losses, and infrequent wins.  A mere few weeks ago Bobby Crosby was batting .300, and I felt sure that I could hear the hooves of at least two of the four horsemen of the apocalypse not too far in the distance.  Now he's back to a .260 average, and it may be that the end of the world has been called off, at least for now.  The A's have been known in the past several seasons as a "second half team," so to see them racking up the wins so early is exciting, but also creates a little anxiety.  They're winning quite a few one-run games, or scoring late in the ballgame and winning late or in extra innings.  Last night I went to bed in disgust when Huston Street (Huston, I love you but you're killing me) blew a 1-0 lead.  He could not find the strike zone, and if I ever find out who kept calling that outside sinker pitch that none of the Oriole batters swung at, there will be hell to pay.  Anyway, they came back in the tenth and won it, but I was upstairs in bed; those west coast games are hard on the sleep schedule.



Tonight the A's continue their series against Baltimore, who personally I feel have one of the best looking uniforms in either league, and the Twins go to Chicago and play the Sox.  You all know my dislike of the White Sox, so I won't repeat it here.  Till next time.