We avoid the big 2.  That's good.  I like our chances a hell of a lot.

 

I predict 6-2.

Consider:

 

-Zito hasn't won since June 8th.

-Garland has been better about "avoiding the one bad pitch" as of late. Plus, Harden has struggled

-Garcia has been way better than Redman this season

 

and we've got a good chance at doing it.

Consider:

 

-Zito hasn't won since June 8th.

-Garland has been better about "avoiding the one bad pitch" as of late.  Plus, Harden has struggled

-Garcia has been way better than Redman this season

 

and we've got a good chance at doing it.

Also consider:

 

There is no better second half team than the A's (their pitching really picks it up in the second half every year with that core of pitchers)

 

Garland is Garland...he can have 8 shut out innings and he will implode in the 9th

 

The A's know Garcia well and have beaten him in the past

 

In 2003, Garcia was 0-2 against the A's with a 5.40 ERA

 

In 2002, he was 1-2 against the A's with a 8.27 ERA

No, we get one of the big two.  Mulder on Sunday.

 

EDIT:  I like your optimism.

Hell, I did not see it was a 4-game set. With a 4-game set, you have to get 1 of the big 2 atleast. You are right. I just assumed(incorrectly I might add) that because valponick only had the first 3 matchups that it was a 3-game set.

 

My bad.

 

I still think we take 6 of 8 on the trip.

 

BTW, FWIW, Minnesota swept Oakland in a 4-game set in their frist series of the second half last year, though that was in Minnesota.

Ok, A's-r-us

Also consider:

 

There is no better second half team than the A's (their pitching really picks it up in the second half every year with that core of pitchers)

 

Garland is Garland...he can have 8 shut out innings and he will implode in the 9th

 

The A's know Garcia well and have beaten him in the past

 

In 2003, Garcia was 0-2 against the A's with a 5.40 ERA

 

In 2002, he was 1-2 against the A's with a 8.27 ERA

Of course, you do recall what Garcia did against Oakland this year, right?

 

7 shutout innings, allowing 4 baserunners(3 hits, 1 walk).

 

I think I'll take that.

 

Also...he was a different pitcher in 02 and 03. He was awful. This year, he has been decent.

 

Another interesting tidbit about Chief...his worst career month is July(a career 4.93 ERA in July). If we can get 2-3 more wins out of him in July, we will be good. This is because his 3rd best month is August, where his career ERA is 3.77, and his best month statistically is the last month, September, where his career ERA is 3.07.

 

Also, sox-r-us, Garland does tend to blow up in the 9th. That's why if it is a close game, Ozzie will take him out. Jonny G only had 90 pitches against Minnesota over 7 innings allowing 1 run. You think that stopped Ozzie from taking him out and putting in Marte?

I must admit it is nice to have a strikeout pitcher like Freddie

on the team. Hopefully he'll be a slump buster for us the next

several seasons.

Too bad we don't have Frank for the road trip.

Personally I hope we don't see a lot of Gload.

Seems we lose everytime he plays.

I must admit it is nice to have a strikeout pitcher like Freddie

on the team. Hopefully he'll be a slump buster for us the next

several seasons.

Too bad we don't have Frank for the road trip.

Personally I hope we don't see a lot of Gload.

Seems we lose everytime he plays.

I don't think we'll be seeing too much of Gload. Probably Timo spells Borchard every now and then, but we shouldn't see much Gload.

The A's know Garcia well and have beaten him in the past

 

In 2003, Garcia was 0-2 against the A's with a 5.40 ERA

 

In 2002, he was 1-2 against the A's with a 8.27 ERA

I ignore the past and focus on the present.

 

Freddy Garcia seems to change every year for the better and that will help this team out.

I'm worried, but I'm also not worried. We're heading into this series with a lot of steam. Just got done sweeping the Mariners (although that's nothing to feel really good about, but sweeping is always a good thing), and got 3 days off. That could be either a good or bad thing. The only reason I'm mainly worried is because of that stupid West Coast Curse garbage.

 

For what it's worth, Oakland has lost 5 of the last 6. But last time we played them, they were slumping, and we helped get them out of it.

No team better than us on this roadtrip

 

Play ball!

I'm hoping that since it's immediately after the AS break, that the team uses that to their advantage and gets out there soon enough to where they eliminate the jet lag effect.

If we win 4-8 on this road trip i wouldn't be disappointed.

valponick, you are right about the matchups for the 1st 3 games & that

seems to favor the Sox

 

Sunday is Mulder vs to be announced for the Sox, they seem to leaning

toward Schoenweiss for Sunday giving Loaiza an extra day off

 

We need a good trip!!!!

 

go go SOXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

bench

Sunday is Mulder vs to be announced for the Sox, they seem to leaning toward Schoenweiss for Sunday giving Loaiza an extra day off

maybe TBA = Randy Johnson

I think this is the time when we finally dispel the "Curse of the Left Coast."  I say we take 6 of the 8 games and get out to a 2 game lead on Minn.

Ahem....

To tell you the truth I'm not worried about this roadtrip all that much.  We've played the A's tough this year and our bullpen blew the games we lost, I think we are much more solid in that respect.  Texas is about to crack....Rogers, who has been their most consistent arm this year, is hurt right now and won't be full strength if he pitches at all.  Cleveland always battles us hard but  we usually get the best of them.  Correct me if I'm wrong but we haven't faced any of these teams with Maggs (except cleveland maybe) and Garcia, so I think we are in much better shape.  Also Harden is starting the first game of that Oakland series, I feel alot better about that than Hudson or Mulder.  We probably won't even see Mulder and Hudson is hurt.  So yea, I feel pretty good about this trip.

rolleyeyes.gif

Consider:

 

-Zito hasn't won since June 8th.

-Garland has been better about "avoiding the one bad pitch" as of late.  Plus, Harden has struggled

-Garcia has been way better than Redman this season

 

and we've got a good chance at doing it.

Wanna re-consider cowbell?

Wanna re-consider cowbell? 

Hindsight is 20/20, but keep soiling yourself because some people on this board actually took an optimistic view on things and happened to be wrong... rolleyeyes.gif

Wanna re-consider cowbell? 

Hmmm should we start digging though Sox-R-Us's posts?

Losing 3 out of 4 against the A's kind of sucks, I'm really mad at Esteban right now. But the two in Texas don't scare me too much. Their pitchers in that series aren't that great. We do get Lee and Sabathia in Cleveland, but we have Buehrle and Garcia going against them. I can easily see us taking 3 of those 4. These games aren't as important as when we play Minnesota after that.