| Bob Souza. 23rd May, 2005 - 6:34 pm
 Dropping two of three over the weekend to San Francisco left Oakland feeling skewered on 2 prongs: First they fumbled their bragging rights to their cross-bay rivals, and second, they find themselves in last place in the American League West, 8 games away.
Things are going a little different for the Athletics this year.
This is a team that is used to winning, having notched at least 91 in each of the last five seasons. At present, they are nine games under .500 and treading water at a furious pace. They?re not far from being totally stuck in the muck.
Less than a third of the season is gone, and they have dropped into the second tier category. That?s the one where you know realistically your chances of being successful are small, yet there?s enough left to keep you dreaming. Not like the dreaded bottom category, where you face another four months of nearly meaningless baseball ? but certainly bad enough.
Former Cy Young winner Barry Zito (1-5) has had plenty to complain about already -- at least where run support is concerned. His mates have only been able to scrape 3 runs together for him in his 5 losses. To his credit, he has tried to stay focused.
?I did demoralizing last year,? he said, shaking his head.
He was alluding to his bloated ERA of 4.48 and eleven wins. While he?s hauling around his current hefty one of 5.17, part of it is from an unpleasant outing against Tampa Bay, where he gave up 8 in a little over three innings.
There?s still time for demoralizing. Give it a chance, Barry. It can happen.
Now his new mantra is ?FITZ?, which stands for ?Fearless In The Zone?. One of his creative friends coined the phrase, and he has taken it to heart, even writing the letters under the bill of his cap.
?That's when I'm at my best, when I'm just in attack mode, pounding the strike zone?.
You go guy.
Not that he?s feeling any pressure as the lone remnant of the so-called ?big three?. Mark Mulder (6-1, 3.71) and Tim Hudson (4-3, 3.47) have left a gap wide enough to drive a truck through.
To be fair (which we always hate doing), injuries have taken a toll. Bobby Crosby and Nick Swisher have been out for a stretch. Both are due back soon. And pitchers Rich Harden, Justin Duchscherer, and Octavio Dotel are still unavailable.
But there?s more to it than a few missing bodies.
The A?s have scored 52 runs less than their opponents, which has been a huge factor in their struggles. Jason Kendall has underachieved, hitting just .234 with only 15 RBIs. Eric Chavez has been even worse at .213 and 18 RBIs. Mark Kotsay has been the most productive, but with just 21 ribbies. The word productive hardly fits.
No player has more than 4 homers. What power shortage?
?We walk too many people,? manager Ken Macha said. ?We make too many errors. We're not scoring a whole lot of runs.?
Gee, Ken. Guess that about covers it.
The A?s are hoping they can spin things around soon. Six of their next nine games are against Tampa Bay, a team in a worse mess than Oakland. The other 3 will be with the Indians.
Just in time. |
