April 11, 2006: vs. Minnesota Twins

Sorry for the very late posting. Got home from work after the game started and my wife was using the laptop. Sure, I could have used the desktop, but then I wouldn't be able to watch the game on TV as the desktop is in another room.

Here are tonight's lineups:
Oakland A's:
2B Ellis
CF Kotsay
SS Crosby
3B Chavez
DH Thomas
RF Bradley
LF Payton
C Kendall
1B Swisher

Minnesota Twins:
LF Stewart
2B Castillo
C Mauer
DH R. White
CF Hunter
1B Morneau
3B Batista
RF Cuddyer
SS Castro

I was hoping to live blog the game, but looks like that isn't going to happen. Will update later with my thoughts on the game once it is over.

Update:
The game just ended, ultimately it was a pretty good game to watch, lots of solid hitting on both sides, but in the end 1 bad inning for Dan Haren was enough to lose the game.

Chavez hit 2 HR in the game and is looking really comfortable at the plate. This is in stark comparison to seasons before. For those keeping count, Chavez hit only 2 HR total in the month of April 2005. Chavez is a notorious slow starter:
April 2005 - 2 HR, 0.194 BA, 0.276 OBP, 0.312 SLG
April 2004 - 5 HR, 0.221 BA, 0.350 OBP, 0.419 SLG
As a matter of fact, Chavez has not hit more than 5 HR in April since 2002, when he hit 9.

Crosby hit his first HR of the season and is looking better at the plate since coming back into the lineup.

Ellis went from hot to cold, going 0 for 5 with 2 Ks. So far his line this season reads:
0.222 BA, 0.323 OBP, 0.259 SLG
I won't panic yet as it has only been 1 week and Ellis hit well against Seattle. I think it is just a matter of time.

I am definitely on the Bradley train. He already has 6 walks and is averaging 4.58 P/PA. Now if he could only get his power numbers up.

Thomas is still struggling at the plate - he is only batting 0.080. The only good news is his 2 hits so far were both for extra bases, 1 HR and 1 2B.

Haren had another rough start, but really it just boiled down to the 3rd inning where he gave up 6 runs. Despite giving up a HR to Morneau, he was relatively solid over the next 3 innings. A lot of pitches seemed to be left up and right in the middle of the plate. It wasn't until later in his outing that he seemed his normal self.

Saarloos looked much better than in his previous outings. Hopefully he has worked out the kinks in his system.

All in all, a good game although the A's came up short. Like I said yesterday, the Twins were just due.