After Dramatic Victory, It's Back to Reality For The A's

It's back to reality for A's fans that one moment of dramatics is over and it's back to watching the A's play pathetic baseball. Again the same question remains for a majority of A's fans—When is Bob Geren finally going to get the heave-ho?

The latest decision making by Geren has cost the A's twice in the past three games, and you can even argue the last three. What's even more depressing, it may cost Andrew Bailey the Rookie of the Year votes, because two of the last three games Bailey has taken a loss.

Here is further proof that Geren's moronic decision making hurts the A's not only in the win-loss record and ERA, but also rankings! Bailey has arguably the best season out of the rookie class this year, but in order for Bailey to win the award he has to be used correctly.

In the Angels game on Sunday, Geren brought in Bailey to pitch the ninth inning. He got through the ninth no problem, but going into his second inning of work is where he ran into the bat of Bobby Abreu—who was looking fastball from Bailey and crushed the pitch to ultimately be the deciding factor of a 1-0 game.

A's fans will remember that game for a while because Brett Anderson was pitching a great game and went 6.2 perfect innings, but because Geren left Anderson in too long, it cost the A's a victory and it cost Bailey as well.

Flashforward to tonight's game. Bailey is called into the ninth inning in a tie game this time 2-2. He got through the ninth with very little problem and it looked like he'd be fine going in the 10th inning, but he gave up a hit to Joe Mauer and then gave Michael Cuddyer a pitch to hit which he promptly drove to right center for an RBI triple.

So, instead of going back into the dugout with a 2-2 tie and playing the bottom of the 10th, Bailey takes another loss. There was a statistic that was shown about Bailey working more than one inning, overall he has some great numbers, but it hasn't reflected once he got named to be closer.

Yes, before being named closer he did have two blown saves after being put into tight positions by Geren.

So, here is another question:Can you name any other manager in the league that would allow their closer to go two innings in a tie ballgame? The answer is no, and with good reason. This is because if the team has a game tomorrow they can use their closer without worrying about him being tired.

Yet, in last night's game we were shown the perfect example. Bailey would have come into the top of the ninth inning to close out the Twins and the 14-13 dramatic victory the A's had after winning from 10 down, but Bailey was not available because he had thrown 29 pitches on that Sunday.

Lastly, with the A's offense coming out last night it was thought that it would wake the A's bats in the lineup, but that theory has been short-lived. The A's only managed four hits tonight.

The last question is:When are the A's going to actually start playing inspired baseball?