I just so happened to be at the park tonight.
A buddy of mine was in town from VanCity for one more night, and we had spoken about taking in a game, but weren't able to get to anything opening weekend, so it was Tuesday vs. Oakland or bust.
I went to the game with a hint of begrudgedness. Seeing Jo-Jo (pronounced Ho-Ho?) Reyes pitch is not something on my bucket list. His opponent, Brandon McCarthy, doesn't exactly stir my loins either. The A's in general; only worth watching because of their utter beatability. Let's suffice it to say I was not expecting a great game.
Boy was I wrong... what a roller coaster ride.
Here's some quick thoughts on the game and the team:
Yunel Escobar became my dick lips temporary moist maker tonight with his walk-off come from behind game winning home run. What a stud.
Jo-Jo managed to prove that he is completely undeserving of the injury induced opportunity afforded him, without costing the team a winnable game. That's a cheap lesson Farrell, you know a BP arm when you see one, send him packing. His fastball showed a little bit of life, but he doesn't have a single decent complimentary pitch, let alone 2 or 3 to make him a viable starter. He's Purcey-light (who finally won me over today, he was lights out. That 94/95 MPH heater is impressive in person. Plus he mixed in his slider effectively.)
John Rauch is very tall, but not very nasty. Everything about him screams intimidation, but a flat 87 MPH fastball and a run of the mill cutter aren't intimidating anyone. His stat-line today looks allright, but everyone was squaring him up, just like 2 days ago when Span knocked the eventual game winner over the fence, and his defense absolutely bailed him out.
The Jay's have a hell of a defensive team. You probably won't see many of the plays on the highlight reels from tonight, because they didn't necessarily end up as outs, but Yunel made a diving stop to save a run, Snyder made a great throw from left to gun down a guy at 2B (Hill bobbled it), and Rajai tracked down everything in center. Lind actually looked pretty adept over a 1-sack too.
Nix is a nice little acquisition. The guy played hard, had good ABs and played a good 3-bag. I'm happy to have him with the team. Once we are healthy, maybe he can stick around instead of McCoy.
The running game is exciting. The only thing that pops up obviously on the score sheet is Hill's swiped bag, but you can just see how it affects the other team. Hill advanced on an error on a pick off his next time on. Rajai tagged and scored on a foul out just a little behind 3rd base in a great read by Brian Butterfield. This caught the A's by surprise and forced an embarrassing throwing error by Kouzmanoff (his 2nd of the day). And then on the very last pitch of the day that ended up in the Oakland bullpen, I have to believe that Balfour had Davis running 4.4 fourties in his head when he served that fastball up to Yunel. It manifests in so many aspects of the game, and even aside from that, it's just so much more exciting to watch as a fan than station to station baseball. I love it.
Bad teams find a way to lose, and good teams find a way to win.
The Jay's haven't been out of a game so far this year, and today they even did it without Jose Bautista and JP Arencibia.
3-1.
Great start to what looks to be a very exciting season.
