Not gonna lie Craig, I was looking forward to your take on our ex-Gold Glove/All-Star CF (that we could have had for the minimum) hitting three jacks, while Frenchy continues to flail aimlessly at the plate.

Not daffy, but…in last night’s A’s-Red Sox game, Boston had a 4-1 lead in the top of the 7th.  Starter Wakefield (whose knuckler was unbelievably lively—-Frisbee-like—- this night, though he only walked one) was removed after giving up two singles to start the inning. With one out and Delcarmen pitching in relief, Mark Ellis, on second, decided that a windblown pop-up would fall in and was all the way to third when Mark Kotsay made a nice catch in short right field. His throw to Nick Green to double up Ellis for the final out of the inning was in plenty of time, but Green just missed the bag with his foot; Ellis slid back safely a split second later. Delcarmen ultimately let the two runners score, both charged to Wakefield.
This morning, I see that the scorer decided to give Green an error on the play…the second half of a potential double-play, for missing the base on a bang-bang play. Call me a cynic, but it sure seems to me like this was a home scorer’s effort to get Wakefield’s ERA down (all the way to 4.13) before his All-Star Game appearance: those two runs are now unearned. I can never recall an error being charged on this kind of play.

I’m reading that the error has been taken away, because, as I thought, you can’t presume the back end of a double play. The Universe is in alignment. Sorry, Wake.(NOW explain to me why a pitcher’s ERA should be affected by events that take place after he’s left the game…)

8K, and the only reason Tek didn’t get hammered is that Kottaras was catching. And he was amazing; Tek would have had about 14 passed balls. Batters were missing the ball by a foot—-those were all swinging strike threes. How often do you see that? If Wakefield has THAT knuckler working in St Louis, nobody will be complaining about him being on the All-Star team.

I watched his strikeouts and the only strikeout I can recall being uglier is Verlander punching out Bloomquist earlier this week.  98 up and in, and the bat ends up flying out of his hands, shattering on the face of the dugout, and the big part is grabbed one-handed by a guy on his cell phone.  It was amazing.