However, “hella” actually means either “really” or “very” (as in, “Cespedes hit that pitch hella far” or “Crisp made a hella good catch”), and is used as an adverb for emphasis. So I think the word you mean is either hellish or helluva, or else you’re missing a word (“… the A’s hella tough road trip”).

Obviously not the basis of your opinion as you live nowhere within proximity to hear that, but it speaks volumes that Angelos is starting to get support from everywhere. I’m now to the point where I think he could throw out the opening day first pitch next year and get a standing ovation from the entire Candim Yards.

I can dig it. PA had made a million poor moves and he’s now either seen the light or realized it’s time to make a change. He went all in hiring Duke was his best move in… well a really friggin long time. No disrespect to Andy McFailure who brought in key components like Hardy, Hunter, Davis, etc. but the trades and signings by Duquette… unbelievable. And it all comes back to PA taking a leap of faith to hire a guy who’s been out of baseball for quite some time. Also the hiring of Buck by PA was monumental in this teams success. Time to start giving credit where credit is due. I applaud Peter Angelos.

Why Jesse Chavez is anywhere near the A’s roster is beyond me, and why he keeps getting into games is beyond me. His last three appearances: 2.1 innings, 7 ER, and he’s allowed several more inherited runners to score. That is not playoff caliber baseball, it’s not Rock Cats (the A’s AAA team) baseball. He needs to be DFA’d now.

Not that he cost the A’s the game. That would be mainly on Mix-A-Lot, whose devastating curve was today a floater that too often ended up, as it did for Miggy’s first blast, dead center of the plate. Having watched all of Griffin’s previous starts, he was today over-amped, which resulted in rushed deliveries and poorly executed pitches. That’s not something desirable when facing a veteran lineup of excellent professional hitters.

Since the A’s began winning around June 1 they’ve been able to bounce back from bad losses, even a small streak of losses, and reel off streaks of winning baseball. But they have to survive this Road Trip of Death. And losing yesterday, with a much depleted Scherzer exiting after only 2 innings, means extra pressure to beat Verlander today.

Leyland had no problem going to the pen early and often yesterday knowing that Verlander could likely go deep into his start today. In his last start, Melvin kept Anderson, Verlander’s opponent today, in far too long, and then followed him with Chavez, in what I considered Melvin’s poorest managing effort of the season and a bad omen going into this 10 game road trip. Another such botch-job and the A’s will find themselves on the precipice of a descent that will be quick,ugly, and decisive. Simply stated, the A’s are not so loaded with talent that they have any margin for error, least of all from their manager. They are all the things pure stat guys hate: scrappy over-achievers who have had a phenomenal run for 3.5 months, and “only” need to maintain that run for 2 more weeks to make the playoffs.

AJ after the game stayed up til 4am left coast time to do an interview with 105.7 here in Baltimore. Said the club house emotions are completely different than ever before. They’re confident. They’re having fun. They’re getting it done one game at a time. But they’re not done yet.

O’s still putting up W’s (3 in a row now) and sitting atop the AL East as the Rays freefall and the Yanks can’t gain any ground. Where are all the “they’ll collapse” and “it’s only a matter of time” naysayers now?? I’ll wait…

LEEEGGGOOOOOOO!!!!!

A little conflict for me. St. Louis is my backup team and I want someone to root for in the playoffs. But they are going to have to continue to bring their game. I’m not going to root for Houston to roll over.

I give it 20 minutes before the HBT post is up.

Since I wasn’t able to use my ticket to last night’s Dodgers-Nats game, I surfed Extra Innings. Settled on the Marlins’ telecast. Some intersting stuff:

– I heard “John Buck” and “resurgent” in the same sentence, without “not” between them. This was before Buck hit the homer that gave the Fish their 3-0 lead.

– Cookie Rojas talking about Roberto Clemente. Priceless.

– Seems that the MLB Fashion Police(tm) are considering a ban on advertising, and other things not players’ names, on gloves. Supposedly, a few players (Wade LeBlanc and Drew Storen were mentioned) have their Twitter addresses sewn into their gloves. Which seems a little odd, but nothing escapes the keen eyes of the Fashion Police(tm).

In honor of the Fish restoring the Nats’ lead to 5.5 games, I shall now say something nice about the Miami-Dade County Baseball Palace of Garishness. On TV, it doesn’t look as ugly as several parks I’ve visited. The Mistake by the Lake (Cleveland Munincipal, mid-60s), The Vet (1988), Busch (1992, pre-renovation), the Astrodome (circa 1999), and RFK (2005-2007).

The game was tied 2–2 going into the top of the 15th inning, until Mets pitcher Octavio Dotel gave up an RBI triple to Keith Lockhart, giving the Braves a 3–2 lead. In the bottom of the 15th inning, the Mets loaded the bases against Braves relief pitcher Kevin McGlinchy. Mets catcher Todd Pratt drew a bases loaded walk, tying the score 3–3.

The next batter was Mets third baseman Robin Ventura. Ventura crushed the 2–1 pitch over the wall in right-center for an ostensible grand slam, winning the game for the Mets and driving the Mets players and fans into a frenzied celebration. Ventura, however, never reached second base as Todd Pratt, the runner who was on first, picked up Ventura in celebration. Subsequently, Ventura was mobbed by his teammates, never finishing his trot around the bases. Because he failed to touch all four bases, the hit was officially scored a single. Roger Cedeno, the runner on third at the time, was ruled the only runner to have crossed home plate before the on-field celebration began and the Mets were awarded a 4-3 victory. Thus, Ventura was only credited with a single and one RBI.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Slam_Single

Truer words were never spoken…or written…or typed into a computer. Whatever the case may be, they’d be 1 game back had they taken care of business in Houston. Now they need to win out and hope for a miracle. I don’t think they catch Milwaukee even if they win out because the Brewers are smoking hot.

Incidentally, Craig, Reyes’ single drove in one run. The Feesh and Braves went to the bottom of the tenth tied at 3. Some day, though, I’d love to see a walk-off two run single to win a tie game in the bottom of the tenth. But we’d better get it done before instant replay expands, dontcha think?