Another chance blown in the 5th. Bauers hitting with 2 on and 2 out gets aggressive as suggested and swings and misses at the first two pitches. Extends the count to 2-2. And then, in the immortal words of Ernie Harwell, he stood like the house by the side of the road and watched strike 3 go by.

Well, rain has held off. But that only allows the A's to widen their lead. This series has been an ass whoopin.

after another Jose Ramirez out, I checked him out on the leader board and find he's running 84th out of 86 qualifiers in OPS in the AL this spring. And one of the two trailers is back in AAA.
Last year as of the All Star game Jose was No. 4 in the AL with an OPS not much less than 2x what he's managed this season.

Does he have options left?

Faced with another meaningless inning Clippard allows another run. 7-0 now. This team is looking worse and worse.

Once again, you took my words/thoughts out of mouth/mind. I was just about to look that up. Let's see what we can find on Jose. He'd hate it but it could make sense.

cannot find the answer quickly.

I'm not sure how that works. He was signed to an extension. And is a veteran now. Not sure the rules of that. But I think he needs to work out his problems somewhere else.

Aggressive swinging finally pays off for Bauers.

Come back begins: 2 run homer by Bauers cuts the lead to 5 runs with 1 inning to go.

didn't come all the way back, but you can't say they didn't make it exciting

or maybe you can

Fernando Rodney still in baseball? Served up that giant meatball. Hit Bauers right in the bat.
I thought he was washed up years ago.

I want to thank Tito for bringing Eric Haase up, finally, and then starting Plawecki at catcher today. Lord knows the lineup needed his .151 average in the lineup.

Our comments about Jose earlier might cause some reactions, but I mentioned a week or two ago he obviously doesn't have his head in the game. Blunders on the base paths. Missing easy pop ups. Looking lost at plate. This guy is worthless right now. His early error cost us 2 runs and an early hole today. They need to have him take a step back and figure it out.

I think Plawecki is gone as soon as Perez is ready to come back.