A's Claim Reliever Pat Neshek from Orioles

Joy R. Absalon/US Presswire

It looks like the A's are dominating the Bay Area news reel today.

After trading Kurt Suzuki to the Nationals, Susan Slusser is reporting that they picked up reliever Pat Neshek from the Orioles.

In a somewhat less high-profile deal, the #Athletics picked up Triple-A reliever Pat Neshek from #Orioles.
— Susan Slusser (@susanslusser) August 3, 2012

In five seasons at the major league level, Neshek is 12-7, with a 3.21 ERA. He played in Triple A for the Orioles this season.

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Red Sox, Orioles Could Have Interest in McCarthy

Jim Cowsert/US Presswire

Buster Olney is reporting that the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox could have interest in A's starter Brandon McCarthy if he is placed on waivers after he returns from the DL.

McCarthy is 6-3 with a 2.54 ERA this season, but has been hampered with injuries for a good part of the season.

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A's Fail to Complete Sweep in Baltimore

A very nice road trip for the A's ended on a sour note, as they failed to complete the sweep in Baltimore on Sunday afternoon.

Travis Blackley allowed five runs in five innings, while the A's struggled to solve Wei-Yin Chen, who gave up just one run in 5.2 innings.

The scoring started in the third, on an Adam Jones RBI double. But it was Matt Wieters who did the damage, hitting a three run homer to put the Orioles on top 4-0. They would pad on a couple more runs and salvage a game with a 6-1 victory.

Yoenis Cespedes provided the A's only RBI with a single that scored Jemile Weeks.

What's on Tap


After a 4-2 road, the A's will return home to face the Tampa Bay Rays, AJ Griffin (3-0, 2.25 ERA) will face off against David Price (14-4, 2.57 ERA).

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A's Beat Baltimore 14-9 in a Wild Game

In what some might call the game of the year, the Oakland A's prevailed to defeat the Baltimore Orioles 14-9 in a game that had momentum swinging from one side to the next very frequently. Both pitching staffs were absolutely horrendous, allowing for some exciting offense by both sides.

It was the A's the stormed out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning, thanks to an RBI triple by Josh Reddick, who scored on a wild pitch, and a couple of home runs by Chris Carter and Brandon Hicks.

But the Orioles would come back in a hurry, scoring six unanswered runs to take the lead. Down 5-3 in the sixth and with two runners on, Adam Jones hit the first pitch by Jarrod Parker on a line to left, just barely getting out of Camden Yards to put Baltimore in front.

The A's would then respond (remember the momentum changes?). Miguel Socolovich walked the bases loaded with two outs, allowing Seth Smith to smack a three-run double into left-center. 8-6 Oakland.

We're not even close to done. As you probably guessed by now, the Orioles would come back once again. Down 8-7, 65-year old Jim Thome (just kidding) came up with another clutch hit, an RBI single past the shift  to tie the game at eight. Chris Davis, the next batter, would knock in the go-ahead run with another single and the O's took a 9-8 lead.

But in the ninth, the A's would make another comeback and put the game away for good. With one out, they went on a furious rally. With runners on first and second, Derek Norris hit a bouncer that found a hole through the right side, tying the game at nine. After Brandon Moss walked to load the bases, Jemile Weeks hit a flair down the left field line that dropped to put the A's ahead. Coco Crisp followed that up with a two-run single to right, then a Seth Smith double off the wall in right field put the cherry on top of the sundae. It was a six-run ninth inning for Oakland, putting them ahead 14-9, and they would hang on to win.

Both starting pitchers (Parker for the A's, Zach Britton for the O's) allowed six earned runs. Jerry Blevins, who pitched the ninth inning, would pick up the win.

What's on Tap


Bartolo Colon (6-8, 3.97 ERA) will be sure to serve up some meatballs tomorrow afternoon as he takes on Tommy Hunter (4-5, 5.57 ERA) of the Orioles. Sorry, Bartolo.

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O's Fans Hounding Trembley

For nine baseball teams (soon to be eight), it’s the start of the postseason. For a bunch of others, it’s the start of the firing season. As usual, it’s the managers who are on the hottest seats, largely because fans, for reasons directly related to the root of the term “fan,’’ tend to lose all sense of perspective and rationale when their teams circle the drain. Lose enough, and no matter the circumstances, the manager gets all the rifles pointing his way.

When this happens, you end up with – just to pull a random example out of thin air, that has nothing to do with the author’s location or the team he once regularly followed – the Baltimore Orioles catching 11 different brands of hell for retaining Dave Trembley after a 98-loss season.

Now, this is far from a singular phenomenon, even in the Baltimore-Washington area, in which Eddie Jordan was fired early last season by the Wizards because he was failing to win without Gilbert Arenas, and where Jim Zorn is being dragged over the coals for having been unprepared for and undeserving of the job capriciously handed him by Dan Snyder.

(Continue to The Steele Drum)

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Rookie Pitchers Give Orioles Hope

Chugging frightfully toward a possible 100-loss season, the Baltimore Orioles somehow showed up on national television Saturday with those throw-back Negro League uniforms, topping the playoff-contending Texas Rangers 5-4 on Fox's Game of the Week.

Major League Baseball fans know diamond-ball in the Baltimore -Washington market is bad this year and has been that way for too many seasons to want to count. With 26 games to go in the 2009 season, the Orioles, and the region's other MLB franchise, are sitting on 81 and 90 losses, respectively.

(Continue to DMA 7-22 Sports)

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