1. Barring the fantastic play that Sogard had in the 15th, ss is a endless blackhole. No matter who we put in and no matter how they are batting in Sacramento shortstop is our Achilles hill. Again HELLAVA play by Sogard.

2. I know this isnt new news but our bats are super sad. We lose anyone from our top 5-6 and the complete order falls apart. Ces gets injured and we get 3 hits in the last 8 innings. We rely on two few bats and too much power hitting. We once again left the bases juiced. Still a bounty on that stat, how many juiced bases we have left.

3. If Cespedes is out for anything over 2 games we might be in a WORLD of trouble going into a stretch against Angels/WhySox

4. Cook.... cookie cookie. He needs to get his head on straight. Too much emotion going into one inning. He is our only all-star and needs to start acting like one.

5. Management is huge. Tack this one up to Melvin. He out penned and out pinched the Blue Jays. If you werent able to watch the game the Jays completely messed themselves when they pinched their dugout and were batting their pitcher in their 2 spot. Melvin utilized our pen much better and had our lineup at its strongest going into the extras. Sogard was a sub and he saved us with that d play.

extra: We might have a bit of a problem with our catcher situation. There were several times Norris was confused with signs, strategy or pitcher arsenal during this game. He had to call meetings and even the commentators noticed the confusion during the game.

BUT WE WIN! WE SLEEP WELL. OAKLAND IS FILLED WITH SPIDERMAN WHIPPED CREAM AND 2ND PLACE IS SECURE!!

GO A`S

Sogard + Weeks + Crisp = Piederman

the one moved i questioned by melvin was pitching hitting moss with his recent struggles, would have liked to see taylor get another AB, i agree though he did a good overall job managing the game, it should have never got to that point of another marathon game. Hopefully a change will be made at closer.

we also saw straily's great outing ! add that on to things we learned :)

I dont really think the marathon games we are seeing are from Melvin pinching people in our batting order. I agree Moss is struggling, but really who isnt? I think the marathon games are a direct result from our fantastic pitching and good bullpin mixed with some very bad batting equaling low scoring games that turn into ice fests as our bullpen/cold bats try to come out positive.

absolutly STRAILY IS A FREAKING STUD! pitch count got high in a hurry from him being a SO pitcher, but still! welcome to the majors kid! fantastic job!

an interesting tidbit from an Eckersley interview recently was that he claims to have coined the term 'walk-off'. Said it was initially a negative statement to describe a pitcher's 'walk of shame' from the field after giving up the game winner.