Oakland A's Three Key Plays Cost Game

The Oakland Athletics loss can be blamed on their horrendous defense. There were three key plays that cost the A's.

The first was on an easy ground ball to Orlando Cabrera that went under his legs. This was the start to a big inning for the Texas Rangers which allowed the the Rangers to over take the A's 3-1 lead and bring it to 4-3.

Luckily for the A's Ryan Sweeney hit a solo home run to tie the score 4-4.

The second play which happened was in the bottom of the eighth. The first play was Jason Giambi's fault he should have made the play on the hard hit ball or at least knocked it down to hold Hank Blalock to first base.

Instead the ball went down the first base line and Blalock was able to get to second.

The second issue in the inning was on the single by Nelson Cruz. Matt Holliday was playing way too deep on the play and even if he came up cleanly with the ball Blalock would have beaten the throw easily.

So, in the end three key plays and each one had a significant effect on the A's and was what lead to the loss for the A's. The A's should not be happy with their effort tonight because each of these plays were avoidable and are plays that should have been made.

On a side note, as well one could say that Bob Geren made a big error too. When Andrew Bailey had Nelson Cruz 2-2 and threw a great pitch and Cruz should have been run up by home plate umpire Eric Cooper.

Instead the count went 3-2 and eventually Bailey gave up a walk to Cruz making the score 3-2 at the time. Luckily for Bailey he got a makeup call on Chris Davis the next batter who struck out on a pitch that was high and outside.

Davis got ejected, but Geren should have been the first one to be ejected. He has to standup for his players and that was Geren's error.