Oakland A's: Doubleheader a Perfect Microcosm of 2011 Season

The A’s split their doubleheader with the Angels on Saturday.

They fell 4-2 in Game 1 and managed salvage a split with a 4-3 walk-off victory in Game 2. Watching both games, it became clear why the A’s have failed this year.

They can’t hit.

Wow shocking revelation, no?

It’s painfully obvious that the A’s aren’t going to make a run this year, mostly because of lack of offense. The pitching has been very good, and while the defense hasn’t been great, it is the offense that has let the A’s down.

This was clear throughout both halves of Saturday’s doubleheader. Numerous times against Jered Weaver, A’s hitters swung with little regard for pitch location or game situation. Weaver was not at his best, but nonetheless the A’s only managed to make headway against him in a single inning.

The seventh was Oakland's only opportunity and while they scored twice, Coco Crisp was unable to come through in the clutch.

That sums up the A’s: almost, but not quite.

An error in the ninth led to an unearned run and put the A’s down by two heading to the bottom of the ninth. Knowing how the A’s operate, two runs in one inning is too big a deficit to handle.

Errors are bad, obviously. Not just because they allow runners to get on, or let extra men bat, but mainly because they increase pitch count. Each error increases the number of pitches a pitcher needs to throw by an average of just over four. Errors can cause innings to snowball unnecessarily and get a pitcher out of his rhythm.

The A’s have allowed a league-high 75 errors, resulting in 53 unearned runs. That’s way too many extra pitches, way too many free bases and an unacceptable number of free runs.

The A’s don’t score with frequency and 50 extra runs are more than the A’s can handle.

That was Game 1. The A’s didn’t take advantage of their opportunities, gave up an unearned run and most importantly, they didn’t win.

One good thing about doubleheaders is that the loser of Game 1 gets a chance to bounce back immediately.

Game 2 began much like Game 1, with the A’s falling behind in the second after a two-run homer by Mark Trumbo. Rich Harden bounced back nicely and allowed only a solo home run to Vernon Wells. Harden completed seven innings with nine strikeouts and three earned runs.

Oakland's offense awoke, in their way, as they scored three times in innings four and five. They scored on a pair of RBI singles and a groundout for good measure.

That is Oakland's offense in a nutshell: get a couple of guys on base and find a way to get them in.

They are not a home run-hitting team, not even really a double hitting team. The A’s are a single, sac fly, groundout kind of team. It worked for them in the second game as Scott Sizemore sent the fans home happy by singling (could have been a double) in the 10th to drive in Cliff Pennington.

The A’s finished the day 1-1. Both games included solid pitching and so-so offense. The A’s scored six runs—none driven in with an extra base hit. Each starter pitched seven solid innings and allowed three runs. The bullpen pitched five total innings and allowed a single unearned run.

Saturday was a perfect day to showcase the A’s. They are a team that scores around three per game, allows practically the same and games are usually decided by the ability to get a key hit with a runner in scoring position.

If the A’s played doubleheaders every day, they’d likely be 81-81.

That would be an improvement on the 2011 so far.

This article was also featured on Bayseball.com