Nuked!

Hey A’s,

I was so heartbroken over our loss on Tuesday that I couldn’t bring myself to write about it yesterday.  On the precipice of turning around our season, the formerly triumphant A’s (I swear we once were) fell to the mighty Non-Pros, of the Dept. of Energy’s Nuclear Non-Proliferation section in a 15-2 rout.

On an otherwise glorious afternoon, we took to the field on Barry and Shelly’s south lawn seeking redemption from our recent losing streak, but it was not to be.  On our familiar field we followed a familiar pattern, giving up a quick 5 runs in the first inning to dig a hole we’d never be able to climb out of.  We actually tightened things up really well on D after that first frame, giving up just one run in each of the following 3 innings, but even at that pace we couldn’t recover.  Through the first three frames we consistently got a few players on base, only to leave them stranded as the spectacular defensive play of the tree huggers kept us at arms’ length.

Though we had power distributed throughout the lineup, we failed to produce a run until the 4^th inning, when MVP Faith Dawg earned her first hit and scored her first run of the season, taking out the frustration she had saved up from our drubbing at the hands of the Republicans (argh!).  Monumental Matt Marran and Pattycakes each rung up RBIs in that frame, but those two runs were all we’d score on the day.  We regressed back into our early-game struggles, getting a few hits here and there but never putting anything consistent together.  Even bringing in All-Star relievers K-Dawg and The Hammah! wasn’t enough to counter the warming bats of the Nukes, and they started to pull away in the later innings.

Once again though, we should try to look to the positive aspects of this game (rare as they may be) moving forward – E-Dub continued her power surge at the plate, Will Abbott showed us that lefties can indeed play infield, PickyPants maintained his pickiness as one of two A’s who hit perfectly on the day, and Hil-Dawg’s call-up from the minors paid immediate dividends as her hustle and spirit rubbed off on her fellow A’s (but not literally – that’d be creepy.).  So while we didn’t win, we can take solace in these bright spots as we look towards the toughest stretch of schedule we’ll face all season.

Over the next two weeks, we’re playing 4 games; Tuesday and Wednesday next week, Tuesday and Thursday the week after (Taking on Nellie’s Ale Stars, The Masters of Disaster (FEMA), The Oil Barons, and Nicky’s Knockers, in that order).  I would love nothing more than to go out in style with a 4-game win streak, so please join me on the diamond for my swan song(s).  I’ll of course send around more info about the games ahead of time, but please let me know if you plan on playing (and which game), and if you’d like to sponsor beer for any of them – I currently don’t have a volunteer for any of the games.

One final note – after being duly criticized for my poor calculation skills, I have re-tallied the slugging percentages for everyone, so go check out the new and improved stats.

See you next week!

Effing A,

skip