The A’s pitched well tonight, but lost 3-2 in 10 innings to the Devil Rays. As usual in these kinds of losses, the A’s had plenty of baserunners, but absolutely sucked at driving them in.

Tonight they were 3-for-16 with runners in scoring position. And only scored two runs. Add that to the 4-for-23 they hit in Baltimore, and the A’s are batting .179 with RISP in 2005.

Such a small sample size shouldn’t really bother me that much, but I’ve been frustrated by this for years. *Sigh*.

Nick Swisher had a bad night. The Devil Rays decided Swisher would see a steady diet of slow stuff away away away. Swisher looked like he was trying to pull everything. He’ll need to adjust and take a couple of those pitches the other way if he ever wants to see another fastball to hit.

That doesn’t bother me so much, as that sort of failure and adjustment are part of the process for a rookie. I was more disappointed with a couple of terrible Eric Chavez ABs. He struck out twice when making any kind of contact would probably score a run. I’ve come to expect better from Chavez; tonight seemed like a regression for him.

On the positive side, the pitching has been fabulous so far this year. Eight runs allowed in four games is excellent. Keep allowing only two runs per game, and even a teamful of the least clutchy hitters in major league history would probably win most of their games.