So: offense. Nice one, guys.

Box & Notes

• Daric Barton ran his usual deep counts in three of his four trips, and his second walk was of the four-pitch variety, so that wasn't exactly his fault. He also did a nice job tagging up from second on a popout in foul ground that Miguel Cabrera caught with his back to the infield.

• Conor Jackson, Offensive Player of the Game,¹ hit two singles, neither of which was scalded. That's the kind of low bar you get for winning the coveted Beaneball award when Phil Coke shuts you out.

• The A's did not get particularly unlucky in this game. Kurt Suzuki hit a ball pretty hard that fell into Ryan Raburn's glove not far short of the wall in left, Cliff Pennington hit two line drives that were caught, and that's about it. Coke threw strikes in good parts of the plate (for him) and the A's couldn't do much with them.

• The A's strike and walk numbers were awful, and it's a miracle they only gave up three runs. Gonzalez managed to walk all six of his men with two outs, which helped keep the runs manageable, but probably isn't sustainable.

• Tyson Ross, as usual, had no idea where the ball was going. He is not who I would have called on in a tied game in the seventh inning. Brad Ziegler had thrown 33 pitches the night before and 12 the night before that, and Breslow had also pitched two nights in a row, but Grant Balfour had thrown just 15 pitches, so that's probably who I'd have gone with, hoping to get two innings from him.