Angels 7, A's 6

The offense was there. The late-inning scratching and clawing was there. But a win just wasn't in the cards for the A's today.

I'm impressed with the A's play in this series though. After the 12-6 drubbing Monday, they didn't zombie their way through the next few games. The hits continued to fall and they actually appeared to resemble a major league baseball team.

I'll tell you one thing though, I really do miss the old Joe Blanton. And I'm not talking about the "I never shake off Jason Kendall" Joe Blanton. He was already struggling with with Kendall behind the plate, so this isn't an issue with the new catcher. He's just in a funk right now. I hope we can get some consistency from him in '08.

Two other items of note:

1. Apparently Mike Piazza had a bottle thrown at him while he waited in the on-deck circle in the 9th inning. According to the game article on the A's official site, he is pressing charges:

Piazza spent several minutes immediately after the game giving his statement to local police, and after getting dressed for the team's charter flight to Seattle, he headed upstairs to give a positive ID of the suspect.

"I'm definitely pressing [assault] charges," he said. "You've gotta make an example of people who do that kind of thing. ... I told [the police], I'll stay back if I have to. I don't care. He'll spend the night in jail."

Yikes. I guess some drunk dumbass who thought he was being funny is now in a mountain of trouble. Don't mess with Mike!

2. Bobby Crosby is on the DL with a broken hand and the A's called up Donnie Murphy to take his roster spot. Murphy has been up with the big club a few times this year, but hadn't played much as he had the role of emergency guy off the bench. This time, it's different though, as he started at shortstop today, and should be 50/50 there with Marco Scutaro (or maybe even more, depending on the health of Eric Chavez). I'm looking forward to getting to see what this guy can do, after he's put up some nice, sexy numbers in Sacramento. His 1-for-4 with an RBI double and a walk was a nice start.

It's off to Seattle for a four-gamer as the A's try to keep the winning spirit alive on the road trip. GO A's!!!