The A’s absolutely outpitched the Red Sox in this sweep, first with Jarrod “The Real Deal” Parker, then with Capt. of the All-Ugly Team Bartolo Colon, and finally with AJ “Mix-a-Lot” Griffin. I’m going with Mix-a-Lot because yesterday he struck Ortiz out in the first on his first big rainbow curve, but that pitch wasn’t effective the rest of the game, whereas his slider and change-up complemented his 90 mph fastball really well. Hence, mix-a-lot.

We aren’t getting as much Sox traffic on the site as we used to. Not that we ever got much. But with Aviles at short, Punto at second, and no Youk or Middlebrooks at third, the highest OPS Boston hitters presented at those 3 positions yesterday was .694( at SS, .542 at 2B and .500 at 3B). That’s bad. That’s A’s bad (.563, .610, .557). Griffin and the bullpen were able to hold those three to 1/9, and along with Ross (0/3) the bottom 4 for Boston posted 1/12 as opposed to 5/15 for the A’s. I wonder how Sox fans feel about the lack of offensive depth in this year’s Sox.I can only imagine.

The A’s now host Seattle for the snooze-fest series, in which the rare hit will be announced with fanfare and media blitz.

So yes, we won. The Treaty of Ghent says so: everything was returned to the way it was before 1812, we got the song and Andrew Jackson would later become President. The UK and Commonwealth had to run away and fight Napoleon.

However, said the universe, that fact has not created in me any sense of interest.

Speaking of a Beaver Victory, on the chat a recurring theme has been the War of 1812. Seen the commemorative coin for than have you? Well I asked our American friends if they’d be getting one, just to tease them a tad. They admitted that they might since the US Mint is having one struck as well. I said “Pardon?? Do the losers of these little scuffles often strike commemorative coins of the loss?”. Guess what? Apparently some are under the impression that they WON that little fray vs us. Methinks the American education system is not all it could be.

I just thought it was comical that a chineese looking panamalian with a thick accent was in Canada asking about how Canadians would celebrate America on the fourth of July.

Just got tired of doing it mostly. If they were considerably more popular than other things I write I’d consider it, but basically it’s just a cost-benefit analysis for me.

I have a question for you and the group and since I don’t do twitter so I ask you this on HBT instead.

So my question is, let’s say its Nov 1st, the WS is over and let’s just say, for the sake of this question that the Yankees just won the World Series. Come Nov 1st Soriano has put together a season of 50 saves and 6 Post seasons saves. Knowing that Mo is coming back next season does Soriano choose to opt out 5 days after the WS ends or does he choose to stick around and become the setup man for Mo next year with a few saves here and there and then take over in 2014 (assuming that Mo retires).
In my opinion I think that he Opts out unless the Yanks can guarantee him some sort of split with Mo (which I cannot see happening). This would also affect Robertson as he would get pushed into the 7th inning role. I’ve spoken to a few folks about this on my train ride and at work and opinions are mixed. I would honestly love to hear yours, as well as the other HBT commentators here.

Thank you!
P.S. second question off topic: do you plan on going to the Dark Night trilogy on the 19th at AMC theaters? Its almost 9 straight hours of batman.

Fox Sports Kansas City showed a pre-game interview in which Bruce Chen and Everett Teaford went around Toronto asking Canadians what they were doing for the fourth of July. It generated some interesting responses, including one man who was actually quite offended that americans would even ask a question like that. I couldn’t stop laughing. Also, there was a woman that proudly proclaimed “we don’t have a fourth of July in Canada”, which made me wonder what the date was yesterday in Canada.

I was saddened a bit yesterday when Scutaro and Nieves both made errors in the bottom of the seventh and the Cards didn’t capitalize on them.

Well, he had a good run, but it’s warm milk and marmalade rusks for Jamie from here on out.