Idiots Write About Sports

Something struck me in the game report from one of the debacles suffered by the A’s on the current road trip. No, not that debacle or even that one — I’m talking about this one, where the A’s blew a 7-0 lead to lose 8-7 against Texas. What struck me in that Chronicle story was a quote from Nick “Next Time Run Out the Ball” Swisher:

“That was a great night offensively,” said Swisher, who has a .545 average against Millwood. “We swung the bats well against a good pitcher and were feeling pretty dang good about ourselves. Maybe that’s how bad things are going right now. Luck is not on our side.”

Sure, a 7-run outburst does seem like a pretty good night, and, most of the time, you would expect to win a game where you put a touchdown up on the board. But a closer look at the box score inidcates that once Kevin Millwood left the game following the fifth inning, the A’s mustered all of one hit and one walk against Ron Mahay, Rick Bauer and Akinori Otsuka — not exactly the murderer’s row of relievers.

Still, if Nick Swisher’s pleased with an offense that went to sleep after the fifth inning, who am I to tell him different.

There’s been a couple of games this year — the April 28 game against Kansas City, the April 9 game against Seattle — where the A’s have jumped out to seemingly comfortable leads, taken their foot off the gas, and watched as their opponents scratched their way back into the game. Maybe it’s just coincidental. Maybe it’s just anecdotal and indicative of nothing out of the ordinary. But it’s hard to shake the perception that the A’s lack a killer instinct, the kind of competitive fire where they don’t let up until a game is in the win column.

Yeah, the bullpen squandered away that game against Texas. But if Oakland’s offense doesn’t shut down, maybe we’re just talking about a near-disaster instead of an out-and-out loss. Either way, Swisher and the rest of the hitters shouldn’t feel like they’re completely unblemished by this result.

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